Evolutionary concepts like natural selection can be applied outside of biology. 1. In agriculture, artificial selection has led to strains of crops and livestock with desirable traits like increased milk yield in cows. Pest resistance has also evolved through natural selection. 2. In medicine, principles of evolution and selection have been used to develop antibiotic resistant bacteria and eliminate cancer cells. Directed molecular evolution has also created new drugs and enzymes. 3. Engineering problems like the traveling salesman problem can be solved using evolutionary algorithms that select optimal solutions through variation and selection, mimicking biological evolution.

1. Evolution In Daily Life, and
Evidence for Evolution
Tugrul Giray
University of Puerto Rico

2. • But why?
• Conflict with religion
• Solution (for some at least):
• Theistic evolution
• And why do we care?

4. Biogeography
" … I have carefully searched the oldest voyages, and have not found a single instance,
free from doubt, of a terrestrial mammal … inhabiting an island situated above 300
miles from a continent or great continental island ... Although terrestrial mammals do
not occur on oceanic islands, aerial mammals do occur on almost every island. New
Zealand possesses two bats found nowhere else in the world: Norfolk Island, the Viti
Archipelago, the Bonin Islands, the Caroline and Marianne Archipelagoes, and
Mauritius, all possess their peculiar bats. Why, it may be asked, has the supposed
creative force produced bats and no other mammals on remote islands? On my view
this question can easily be answered; for no terrestrial mammal can be transported
across a wide space of sea, but bats can fly across. … Hence, we have only to suppose
that such wandering species have been modified in their new homes in relation to
their new position, and we can understand the presence of endemic bats on oceanic
islands, with the absence of all other terrestrial mammals."
Charles Darwin: The Origin of Species by means of Natural Selection, Chapter XIII

5. Argument From Design/Intelligent Design
does not hold well
• Vestigial organs
• Pseudogenes
• Evolutionary limitations (forcing structures like panda’s thumb to
evolve)
• Poorly “designed” structures
• “What a book a devil’s chaplain might write on the clumsy, wasteful,
blundering, low, and horribly cruel works of Nature!” Darwin wrote
upon observing the natural relationships that occur all the time
such as parasitism or predation.

6. Poor design

10. Evolution in real time

12. Evolutionary Science: Do we use it?
• We use other organisms’ adaptations
• Antibiotic penicillin is an adaptation of the Penicillium chrysogenum fungus
for suppressing competing bacteria
• We use heat-stable DNA polymerase isolated from the bacterium Thermus
aquaticus for PCR
• More recenty CRISPR-Cas9 mechanism which evolved in bacteria to combat
foreign DNA such as bacteriophage, is being used for altering genes to meet
our purposes
• We use evolutionary biology to improve ????

13. Science and technology
In the Ottoman empire use of printing press has been
delayed for over 300 years until it was permitted by an
order (“Fatva”) of Sheyhulislam (the chief of Islam) on
1727 (O. Koloğlu 2006).
Whereas in Europe about 200 years prior to this it was
written:
‘There no longer are any body who cannot read.
Thieves, murderers, barmen, horse riders and the lowest
layers of the society see themselves more knowledgable
than doctors and scientists. Even women and kids are
reading.’ (Rabelais 1530).

14. Science and Technology
İzmit Earthquake, Turkey 1999
7.2 on Richter Scale; 17000 dead
Hokkaido, Japan 2003
8.0 ; 0 dead

15. Science and Technology
Reduction in earthquake damage
25
50
160
1906-1955 1956-2006
8
7
20
12
Years
Loss
of
life
(x1000)
Japan
Turkey

16. Evolution:
Change through reproduction.
The concept that hereditary similarity of
living organims reflect their relatedness has
been applied in fields extending from
forensics to tracking epidemics.
Darwinian Medicine ( See Stearns ‘08)

17. Darwin’s observations and inferences
• VARIATION
HEREDITY
NOT ALL PROGENY CAN REPRODUCE
inference: CERTAIN VARIETIES WOULD
LEAVE MORE OFFSPRING THAN OTHERS
Natural Selection resulting in: adaptation
(Darwin 1859)

18. Selection and its application
1. Agriculture
2. Medicine
3. Pharmacology
4. Conservation
5. Engineering

19. Agriculture (Breeding: artificial selection)
1. Variation in milk yield
2. Heritable
3. Breed from high yield family
4. A strain with high yield results
(e.g. Hansen 1999)

20. (e.g. Hansen 1999)
1964-69 1970-79 1980-89 1990-96
100
50
YEARS
Daily
milk
yield
(kg/cow)
Agriculture (Breeding: artificial selection)

21. Agriculture (Resistance: “Natural Selection”)
1. Variation in resistance to chemical agents
2. Heritable
3. Survivors at a particular dose reproduce
4. Resistant pests are selected.

22. Agriculture (Resistance: “Natural Selection”)
Denholm, Devine, Williamson 2002

23. Agriculture
(Breeding 2)
2. Chicken lay eggs at different rate.
This is a heritable trait.
Individuals in a cage that produces the
largest number of eggs are bred (group
selection).
A strain with high egg yield and reduced
aggressiveness is selected!
(Craig and Muir 1996)

24. Agriculture
(Breeding 2)
(Craig and Muir 1996)

25. Medicine (Antibiotics)
2. Bacteria show variation in
resistance to antibiotics.
Trait is heritable.
Long term, high dose
antibiotics.
No survivors!

26. Medicine (Cancer)
1. Cancer cells vary in resistance to one
chemotherapy agent.
2. Trait heritable.
3. Combined chemotherapy
4. No cells survive, cancer is
eliminated!

27. Medicine (Cancer II)
1. Cancer cells differ in rate of growth and
division
2. Trait heritable
3. Reduction in resources selects against fast
cancer cells (Antiangiogenic medications)
4. Slow growing, benign cancer cells
selected

28. Pharmacology (Directed Molecular
Evolution and new medicines)
1. Protein sequence copied or cloned with
“mutations”
2. These mutations are heritable
3. Binding to/acting on target under
desired conditions examined,
sequences/clones that produce proteins
with better properties increased
4. Proteins that work under different
conditions are selected

29. The directed evolution of enzymes, the laboratory counterpart of
Darwinian evolution, to explore and modify biocatalyst properties.
1. MODIFY: the generation of variant gene libraries from a wild-type
gene
error-prone PCR; DNA shuffling etc.
2. EXPLORE: the evaluation of the resulting libraries by a screening
or selection system (fitness function)
In vivo or metabolic selection is usually considered more efficient
for screening a large library, since only improved mutants survive
the selection leading to the successful evolution of diverse
enzymes.

30. • DISCOVERY OF A LOW PH THERMOSTABLE alpha-AMYLASE
Richardson et al. 2002. JBC 277:26501-26507

31. Engineering (Finding optimum solutions to
difficult and complex problems)
2. Steps of operations varied
The series of steps can be transferred
without mistakes (heritable)
Applied to the problem, solutions close
to desired solution are found.
The series of steps of operation that
provide these solutions are selected.

32. Engineering (Finding optimum solutions to
difficult and complex problems)
2. Travelling salesman problem
An optimal TSP tour
through Germany’s 15
largest cities. It is the
shortest among 43 589 145
600 possible tours visiting
each city exactly once.