Recent research on stick insects demonstrates that genes related to lost traits may be preserved over evolutionary time scales due to their multiple roles in biological processes, allowing for the potential re-emergence of these traits. This study sheds light on the complex genetics of trait preservation and re-emergence, pointing to broader implications for evolutionary biology.
Traits can disappear through evolution if they become unnecessary or too resource-intensive to sustain. It’s commonly thought that the genes associated with these traits will also deteriorate over time, potentially preventing the traits from reappearing. However, there are numerous examples in nature of once-lost traits reappearing in descendent lineages.
This suggests that the genes associated with these traits might be conserved, possibly for millions of years. However, there has been limited research on the molecular basis of this re-emergence, which means the mechanisms responsible for preserving these genes remain largely speculative until now.Forni and his colleagues shed light on another complex trait that has been lost in some stick insects—the production of males.
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