In article <1992Jun30.024538.3684 at gpu.utcs.utoronto.ca> lamoran at gpu.utcs.utoronto.ca (L.A. Moran) writes:
>> c) Changes in environment cannot "force" mutations. What does this
> mean?
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An organism lives in an environment for which some of the
substances it produces are nearly optimal. Then little or
no change is expected for these substances. The envorinment now
changes (e.g. CO2 concentration goes down, or the temperature
goes up, etc.) and the old substances are no longer adequate,
so the organism either evolves or disappears. In the aftermath
we can say that the change in the environement "forced" mutations
in the survivors. (It is all through natural selection, of course).
Gaston H. Gonnet, Informatik, ETH, Zurich.
