Understanding Natural Selection

By: Mark Goldy-Brown Date: 10/17/2013 Audience: Freshmen students in a general biology class at a larger university such as Penn State. The students are assumed to have taken a basic biology course in high school and are therefore familiar with many of the fundamental principles of biology such as evolution and genetics.

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Understanding Natural Selection

What is Natural Selection?
Natural Selection is one of two mechanisms of evolutionary change. Specifically, natural selection defines a process by which organisms with certain, inheritable characteristics survive and reproduce more frequently than organisms without them. This process results in adaptive evolution, by which from generation to generation, a population of organisms becomes better adapted to its environment. Essentially, you can think of life as one big game of chutes and ladders, with only those organisms best adapted to their environments getting to keep on climbing up. Charles Darwin (Image 1) first proposed the theory of natural selection, which he termed survival of the fittest, all the way back in the 1860s after his famous trip to the Galapagos Islands, and to this day, the theory still holds. How strange to think that a theory, created by a man without any of the tools of modern science, still holds up over 150 years later. According to Darwin, and further embellished by modern science, natural selection requires three basic conditions in order to occur in a species: 1) Variation (genetic) must exist in a specific trait among individuals of a given species 2) Variation in this trait must lead to non-random differences in reproductive success 3) Variation in this trait must be heritable Over the next few paragraphs, I will break down each component of natural selection in a nice and simple manner. While natural selection may seem daunting right now, by the end of this article, you will be an expert, able to call home and show off your new knowledge to your parents! But before we jump in to a discussion of natural selection, lets first talk about a system in nature that will help you to understand natural selection and the importance of each of its three components. While most scientists and textbooks explore biological theories using generic organisms such as mice, fruit flies or bacteria, we will explore natural selection using something far more interesting; fence lizards and fire ants.

A Model System for Natural Selection: Lizards, and Fleeing, and Ants, oh my!
Fence lizards (Sceloporus undulatus) are a species of lizard native to the southern and eastern United States. They range from Alabama and Florida, all the way up to Pennsylvania and New Jersey. The lizards all along this range constitute the same species, but each population of lizards along this great range shows differences in various traits such as size, color and behavior. Down in Alabama, fence lizards live in areas also inhabited by an invasive ant, the Red Imported Fire Ant (Solenopsis invicta) which was accidentally introduced into the South over 80 years ago. Im sure youve heard of fire ants before, whether by new or by a personal encounter! Just 12 attacking fire ants can paralyze and kill an adult fence lizard. Keep in mind, the average fence lizards is about 72 times larger than the average fire ant (Image 2).

So, among populations of fence lizards in Alabama, intense pressure exists for lizards to respond to attack by fire ants; if they dont respond, they may die. A lizards survival and reproduction directly depends on how it responds to a fire ant attack. When attacked by fire ants, fence lizards exhibit one of two responses: fleeing or sitting still. Those that flee have an improved chance of survival, while those that sit still will likely die. Figure 1 summarizes the lizard-fire ant system for reference.

Now that you understand the model system, lets explore the three components of natural selection and how they function in our lizard-fire ant system.

The Three Components of Natural Selection

1) Variation must exist in a specific trait
Natural selection requires variation on which to act. Variation comes in many forms (behavior, appearance, fecundity, etc) and for our purposes we will assume all variation has a genetic basis. Apart from clones, every organism differs slightly from each other, even within the same species. Just take a look at eye color in humans; some people have blue eyes, some have brown and others, green! So returning to our lizard-fire ant system, which specific trait shows variation? Well if you remember Figure 1, then you know not every lizard responds the same when attacked by fire ants; some lizards flee while others just sit still and endure the pain. So in this case, natural selection acts upon the behavioral response to fire ant attack; bet you didnt know behavior could evolve. In other words, the response to fire ant attack is the specific trait that varies. Lizards that flee have a better chance of survival, while those that just sit still will either die or become severely damaged. If all of the lizards fled, or all of the lizards just sat still, then natural selection would not affect this trait.

*Remember: Natural selection is not a conscious process; it happens naturally as an organism interacts with its environment. While natural selection might still be a bit confusing now, it will start to get clearer as we progress so lets move on to the second requirement of natural selection.

2) Variation must lead to differences in reproductive success

For natural selection to act, variation in a trait must lead to differences in the reproductive success of those individuals possessing the trait compared to those that lacking it. Assuming natural selection occurs in our lizard-fire ant system, how does the previous sentence relate to it? If you said the lizards which flee from fire ant attacks will have more offspring than those which sit still when attacked, you were correct! For those of you who couldnt connect the dots, lets explore this a little further. We are still talking about variation in the behavioral response to fire ant attack, but now we are examining how that variation relates directly to reproductive success. Think of it this way; if you die, you cant have babies. The lizards which flee from fire ants survive to reproduce more frequently than those which sit still when attacked. Since more fleeing lizards survive to reproduce than lizards that sit still when attacked, fleeing lizards will produce more offspring than non-fleers. Thus, in the next generation of lizards, the offspring of fleeing lizards will make up a greater percentage of the population than the offspring of lizards which sit still (see figure 2 below).

Now can you begin to see the importance of the link between variation and reproduction?

3) Variation must be heritable

The last component of natural selection states that the variation in a specific trait must be heritable, or able to be passed on from parent to offspring. If we look at our lizard-fire ant system, the lizards that flee must produce babies that flee and the lizards that sit still must produce babies that sit still. Without this vital link, natural selection would not lead to adaptive evolution. If response to fire ant attack were not a heritable trait in fence lizards, then we would expect in figure 2 to find the ratio of fleeing lizards to sitting still lizards remaining fairly constant from generation to generation. However, this is not the case! Fleeing lizards produce offspring that flee, and so over multiple generations of lizards we see more and more lizards responding appropriately to fire ant attack. Consequently, the trait for fleeing becomes more common among the lizard populations. Natural selection leads to organisms well-adapted to their environments, but if these beneficial adaptations (such as fleeing when attacked by fire ants) cannot pass on from generation to generation, then they cannot lead to change within a species. Now do you see, with this last piece of the puzzle, how natural selection works?

Final Conclusions
As stated initially, natural selection is the mechanism of evolutionary change. As we discussed, natural selection has three requirements: 1. Variation must be present in a specific trait 2. Variation in this trait must lead to non-random differences in reproductive success 3. Variation in the trait must be heritable If a trait meets all three of these components, then natural selection will act upon it, thus resulting in organisms better adapted to their environments. Taking the fence lizard as an example, the specific trait we examined was whether the lizards fled from fire ant attack or merely sat still. Since natural selection acts in this system, we expect that the frequency of fleeing lizards should increase from generation to generation as long as the fire ants remain a significant threat. Figure 3 summarizes the direct relationship between natural selection and the fence lizard-fire ant system.

As we have explored in this brief article, natural selection is a means of bringing about change, a mechanism by which life continues to move on, despite all of the challenges our world presents. When fire ants were first introduced to the US, fence lizards were not able to respond appropriately. Most of the lizards just sat still and died, but there were some, just a small few, that fled when attacked. Over many generations, the lizards that fled had more offspring than those that didnt, and so, in general, the species adapted. Isnt that amazing? I hope by reading this article, you have both gained an understanding of natural selection, but also an appreciation for it as well. The most beautiful and intricate relationships in nature, such as that of the fragrant flower, tantalizingly attracting the persistent pollinator, the charming crocus creeping out from below the shimmering snow, or even the little lizard fleeing from the fierce fire ant, arose by the guiding force of natural selection.