Rare Acropora species may therefore be less vulnerable to extinction than has often been assumed because of their propensity for hybridization and introgression, which may increase their adaptive potential.
Hybridized populations that maintain introduced, potentially beneficial alleles over the long term (for reasons discussed above) may exhibit increased adaptive potential in the form of greater survival and phenotypic plasticity, as a result of elevated genetic diversity (Arnold 1992; Dowling and Secor 1997).
In summary, although it has often been assumed that small populations have a decreased potential for adaptation [19], our analyses imply that some rare Acroporid corals may actually have increased adaptive potential as a consequence of introgressive hybridization [20], and therefore may be less vulnerable to extinction than has been assumed.
Modifying the innate response may increase the strength of adaptive responses required for inducing efficient immunological memory in infants.
For instance, modularity may increase the rate of adaptive evolution, because modules can be easily combined into new arrangements that may benefit their carrier.
This organisation of transcription factors may increase the rate of adaptive evolution in Fusarium by more readily allowing the formation of transcriptional networks with superior adaptation to the habitat of the fungus.
In addition, adaptation costs may increase greatly if actions to improve adaptive capacity are also included (e.g., investments in education, nutrition, and health care system infrastructure).
Judicious use of adaptive designs may increase the information value per resource unit invested by avoiding allocation of patients to non-efficacious/unsafe therapies and allowing stopping decisions to be made at the earliest possible time point.
The number of substitutions acquired by a protein-coding gene may increase during periods of rapid adaptive change or decrease because of strong structural or functional constraints on the coded protein.
It may be speculated that in the natural habitat, where natural resources sometimes become transiently smaller and/or predation pressure is increased, the behavioral characteristics of increased voluntary activity associated with or perhaps causal to curiosity and exploration may be adaptive and may increase the chances of survival.
