ReviewJournal of molecular evolution2021
Constructive Neutral Evolution 20 Years Later.
Review in Journal of molecular evolution, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 48 papers.
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.
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.
Who cites it
48 citing papers in PubMed.
- The evolutionary origins of streptophyte multicellularity.The New phytologist · 2026Review
- Functionality versus Adaptation: Insights from Transcriptional Adaptation.Journal of molecular evolution · 2026Review
- Structure of giant kelp Photosystem I-FCP uncovers drivers of antenna evolution across the red lineage.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Review
- The assembly rules guiding hetero-oligomeric bacterioferritin organization and their evolutionary signature.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2026Article
- Emergence and Tandem Repeat-Mediated Elongation of a Translated De Novo Open Reading Frame in Human Oncogenic RNA Gene VPS9D1-AS1 (MYU).Genome biology and evolution · 2026Article
- Can transcriptome size and off-target effects explain the contrasting evolution of mitochondrial vs nuclear RNA editing?Journal of evolutionary biology · 2025Article
- Structural variability of multifunctional proteins indicates frequent stochastic evolution of protein oligomers.Communications biology · 2025Article
- Electrostatic changes enabled the diversification of an exocyst subunit via protein complex escape.Nature plants · 2025Article
- Structure of Photosystem I-FCP from giant kelp uncovers drivers of antenna evolution across the red lineage.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- On the origin, evolution, and maintenance of RNA editing.Nucleic acids research · 2025Review
- Not by Selection Alone: Expanding the Scope of Gene-Culture Coevolution.Evolutionary anthropology · 2025Review
- Coupling Bacterial Cell Size Regulation with Clonal Proliferation Dynamics Reveals Cell Division Based on Surface Area.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Accurate interpretation of inosines in RNAs: recognized as G is more than basepairing with C.Epigenomics · 2025Article
- The origins and evolution of translation factors.Trends in genetics : TIG · 2025Review
- The Constructive Neutral Evolution of Behaviour.Ecology and evolution · 2025Article
- Complexity myths and the misappropriation of evolutionary theory.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- A generalized adder for cell size homeostasis: Effects on stochastic clonal proliferation.Biophysical journal · 2025Article
- How genomics can help unravel the evolution of endophytic fungi.World journal of microbiology & biotechnology · 2025Review
- An Ultimate Question for Functional A-to-I mRNA Editing: Why Not a Genomic G?Journal of molecular evolution · 2025Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Evolution has led to a great diversity that ranges from elegant simplicity to ornate complexity. Many complex features are often assumed to be more functional or adaptive than their simpler alternatives. However, in 1999, Arlin Stolzfus published a paper in the Journal of Molecular Evolution that outlined a framework in which complexity can arise through a series of non-adaptive steps. He called this framework Constructive Neutral Evolution (CNE). Despite its two-decade-old roots, many evolutionary biologists still appear to be unaware of this explanatory framework for the origins of complexity. In this perspective piece, we explain the theory of CNE and how it changes the order of events in narratives that describe the evolution of complexity. We also provide an extensive list of cellular features that may have become more complex through CNE. We end by discussing strategies to determine whether complexity arose through neutral or adaptive processes.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
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.