瑞士苏黎世大学Andreas Wagner团队近期取得重要工作进展，他们研究分析了物种进化上崎岖但易于通行的适应度景观。相关研究成果2023年11月24日在线发表于《科学》杂志上。

据介绍，适合度景观理论预测，具有多个山峰的崎岖景观会损害达尔文进化论，但实验证据有限。

研究人员使用基因组编辑技术绘制了二氢叶酸还原酶在抗生素甲氧苄啶存在下的超过26万个基因型的适应度图谱。研究结果表明，这种基因型的分布崎岖不平，存在514个适合度峰值。然而，进化种群可以通过丰富的适存度增加路径到达最高峰。不同的峰值共享大的吸引力盆地，使适应性进化的结果高度取决于偶然事件。

总之，这一研究表明，崎岖不平不一定是达尔文进化论的障碍，但会降低其可预测性。如果在一般情况下确实如此，那么可能需要重新评估现实景观上优化问题的复杂性。

附：英文原文

Title: A rugged yet easily navigable fitness landscape

Author: Andrei Papkou, Lucia Garcia-Pastor, José Antonio Escudero, Andreas Wagner

Issue&Volume: 2023-11-24

Abstract: Fitness landscape theory predicts that rugged landscapes with multiple peaks impair Darwinian evolution, but experimental evidence is limited. In this study, we used genome editing to map the fitness of >260,000 genotypes of the key metabolic enzyme dihydrofolate reductase in the presence of the antibiotic trimethoprim, which targets this enzyme. The resulting landscape is highly rugged and harbors 514 fitness peaks. However, its highest peaks are accessible to evolving populations via abundant fitness-increasing paths. Different peaks share large basins of attraction that render the outcome of adaptive evolution highly contingent on chance events. Our work shows that ruggedness need not be an obstacle to Darwinian evolution but can reduce its predictability. If true in general, the complexity of optimization problems on realistic landscapes may require reappraisal.

DOI: adh3860

Source: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adh3860