JERUSALEM, Aug. 26 (Xinhua) -- Israeli researchers have found that evolution does not choose randomly when there are several equally good ways for organisms to survive, the Israel Institute of Technology (Technion) said in a statement on Wednesday.
In their study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), the researchers revealed that when different evolutionary routes provide equal advantages, evolution favors paths that make biological systems more resilient to future mutations and environmental changes.
Scientists often view evolution as a process where organisms adapt to better survive in their environment. However, the Technion researchers wanted to explore what happens when competing evolutionary paths yield identical levels of success.
Their findings showed that evolution tends to navigate toward "flatter" areas of the evolutionary landscape. These are regions where subsequent minor mutations are less likely to cause harm.
This means that when presented with equally beneficial options, evolution tends to favor the path that offers greater long-term stability.
The researchers noted that these insights could help explain the natural resilience of biological systems and deepen the understanding of evolutionary dynamics. ■
