Is the Buffer Mechanism Universal in Biological Evolution?

Abstract

The emergence of new biological traits is landmarks of evolutionary progress. However, when, how, and why do they appear? We propose a universal mechanism, a Buffering Mechanism of Evolution to understand these questions. We speculate that all organisms possess this potential buffer capacity. This capacity would be triggered by the pressures, natural or artificial, to express the intrinsic potential variants. The potential buffer capacity of the organism increases for further selections as evolutionary progress occurs. The higher the evolutionary level of the organism, the greater the potential buffer capacity, and importantly, the buffer capacity versus the pressures of selections will result. However, when the pressures are far more than the potential capacity of the targets, the natural or artificial pressures then compromise the genetic buffering system resulting in possible species extinction if the emergence of new traits fails.

KEYWORDS:

• Adaptability
• buffer mechanism
• evolution

Acknowledgments

We express our gratitude for the financial support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 30971787), the Provincial Science and Technology Foundation for Young Scientists of Sichuan, China (2010JQ0042), and the Fok Ying Tung Educations Foundation (No. 111030).