Adult chronic diseases may be the result of the complex interplay of critical periods, tracking of risk factors through childhood and adulthood and accumulation processes, even acting over generations [ 4].
Darwin demonstrated that the driving force of [adaptive] evolution comes from the accumulation, over countless generations, of chance genetical changes sifted by the rigors of natural selection.
Thirty years ago, widely respected broadcaster Sir David Attenborough (1979) aptly described the challenge of avoiding anthropomorphic shorthand in descriptions of adaptation: Darwin demonstrated that the driving force of [adaptive] evolution comes from the accumulation, over countless generations, of chance genetical changes sifted by the rigors of natural selection.
We identified substitutions, InDels, and copy number variants (CNVs) larger than 20 bp, and compared their accumulation over the generations.
Freezing the strain, for long term storage, at three different time points, F170, F270 and F470, allowed us to compare and visualize mutation accumulation over the generations.
As stated several times (Judson and Normark 1996; Welch and Meselson 2000), asexual reproduction can be responsible for maintaining high heterozygosity levels or even for increasing heterozygosity by the accumulation of mutations over generations.
In diploid species, sexuality may avoid the accumulation of deleterious mutations over generations (Muller ratchet) (Richards 2003).
The map expansion results (Table 5 and Figure 3) indicate the accumulation of recombination events over generations, which can be valuable for study design: If an investigator intervenes at an intermediate generation to speed up the process toward inbreeding, what proportion of the final recombination breakpoints might be lost, and so to what extent might mapping precision be eroded?
The rapid appearance (over evolutionary time) of the cognitive skills and complex inventions of modern humans has been attributed to "cumulative cultural evolution" (CCE), the accumulation of knowledge and skills over generations.
After some algebra, the result is: <img src="http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/asset?id=info?doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0011656.e001.PNG" class= inline-graphic"/> This is a linear recurrence relationship (finite-difference equation) for <g> describing the accumulation of average fecundity "wealth" over generations.
