Evidence map›Paper›PMID 23062217›Full record

ReviewBiology direct2012

Constructive neutral evolution: exploring evolutionary theory's curious disconnect.

Arlin Stoltzfus

Open access · goldAbstract readReview
In one paragraph

Review in Biology direct, 2012. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 41 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
41citing papers in PubMed
2.5field-weighted citation impact, top 11% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

41 citing papers in PubMed, 111 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Article
  2. Remodeling ofScience advances · 2026
    Article
  3. Review
  4. Article
  5. Article
  6. Article
  7. Article
  8. How ciliates got their nuclei.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2023
    Article
  9. Simple mechanisms for the evolution of protein complexity.Protein science : a publication of the Protein Society · 2022
    Review
  10. Article
  11. Article
  12. Non-Darwinian Molecular Biology.Frontiers in genetics · 2022
    Review
  13. Constructive Neutral Evolution 20 Years Later.Journal of molecular evolution · 2021
    Review
  14. Review
  15. A single historical substitution drives an increase in acetylcholine receptor complexity.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2021
    Article
  16. Article
  17. Review
  18. Article
  19. Article
  20. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

1 author at 1 institution in 1 country.

Arlin StoltzfusInstitute for Bioscience and Biotechnology Research, 9600 Gudelsky Drive, Rockville, MD 20850, USA. arlin@umd.edu
Institute for Bioscience and Biotechnology Research

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

unlabelledConstructive neutral evolution (CNE) suggests that neutral evolution may follow a stepwise path to extravagance. Whether or not CNE is common, the mere possibility raises provocative questions about causation: in classical neo-Darwinian thinking, selection is the sole source of creativity and direction, the only force that can cause trends or build complex features. However, much of contemporary evolutionary genetics departs from the conception of evolution underlying neo-Darwinism, resulting in a widening gap between what formal models allow, and what the prevailing view of the causes of evolution suggests. In particular, a mutationist conception of evolution as a 2-step origin-fixation process has been a source of theoretical innovation for 40 years, appearing not only in the Neutral Theory, but also in recent breakthroughs in modeling adaptation (the "mutational landscape" model), and in practical software for sequence analysis. In this conception, mutation is not a source of raw materials, but an agent that introduces novelty, while selection is not an agent that shapes features, but a stochastic sieve. This view, which now lays claim to important theoretical, experimental, and practical results, demands our attention. CNE provides a way to explore its most significant implications about the role of variation in evolution. REVIEWERS: Alex Kondrashov, Eugene Koonin and Johann Peter Gogarten reviewed this article.

Indexed as

Evolution, MolecularGenetic DriftModels, GeneticMutationRNA Editing

Identifiers

PMID23062217
PMCPMC3534586
OpenAlexW2008677817

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.