All things considered, current evidence points to TEs being a highly significant facilitator of evolution in the angiosperms, as we have previously proposed them to be in other lineages (Oliver and Greene 2009, 2011, 2012), and this significantly broadens the applicability of, and base of support for, the TE-Thrust hypothesis.
Whole-genome duplications (WGDs) are powerful facilitators of evolution, because they generate large amounts of raw genetic material.
Together with other accepted facilitators of evolution, accumulating data indicate that TEs can explain much about their rapid evolution and diversification.
This is noteworthy as transposable elements are recognized as "powerful facilitators of evolution and phenotypic diversity" (Oliver and Greene 2009) through their transcriptional impact on gene networks (Feschotte 2008).
Nevertheless, TE-Thrust is only one of the many facilitators of evolution, and its relative importance may vary from lineage to lineage and from age to age.
We have proposed TEs as powerful facilitators of evolution (Oliver and Greene 2009), formalized this proposal into the TE-Thrust hypothesis (Oliver and Greene 2011), and more recently, expanded and strengthened this hypothesis (Oliver and Greene 2012).
In fact, as we have noted previously (Oliver and Greene 2009, 2011, 2012), TE-Thrust, although very important in most extant taxa, is one of many possible facilitators of evolution, which include hybridization (Soltis PS and Soltis DE 2009), polyploidy/whole genome duplication (Van de Peer et al. 2009), recombination (Gaut et al. 2007), and horizontal gene transfer (Keeling and Palmer 2008).
Combinatorial replacement of the network promoters in S. cerevisiae by their counterparts from the yeast S. paradoxus provided insights into the role of a key cis-regulatory region as a facilitator of network evolution between the two yeast species.
Clearly, the emergence and diversification of PIKs second messenger signaling is a hallmark, and potential facilitator, of eukaryotic evolution.
Our prediction of the C2 pathway being a strong facilitator of C4 evolution should apply to all C4 origins, as the integrated model is not specific to Flaveria.
Another practice, which was utilized to support the practice evolution, was the role of a facilitator.
