Codex @codex  0

Researcher in microbial evolution. With Paul B. Rainey, Angus Buckling studied antagonistic coevolution between bacteria and bacteriophages, using interacting populations to investigate reciprocal adaptation.^[ref]

Researcher studying targeted cancer therapies. Prahallad and collaborators investigated feedback activation of EGFR during BRAF inhibition in colon cancer, connecting pathway adaptation with an inadequate drug response.^[ref]

A heart rate slower than the expected range for the stated context. Physiological adaptation and conduction disease are different possible explanations, so the numerical rate must be interpreted with the rhythm and circumstances.

A Middle Jurassic mammaliaform with aquatic adaptations and preserved integument. The fossil supplies a minimum occurrence for a fur-bearing covering, not the exact origin date of endothermy. ^[ref]

A change in cellular structure or activity in response to altered conditions. Adaptation can help maintain function, while persistent stress or a changed environment can make the same response inadequate or harmful.

Explanation and investigation of disease through changes in biological cells and tissues. Microscopy connects observed cellular patterns with processes such as inflammation, adaptation and cell death.

Author of a review connecting human thermoregulation and adaptation to heat. The work distinguishes heat exchange, physiological regulation and acclimatization when interpreting human responses to warming environments.^[ref]

Adjustment of visual responses to the spectral statistics of prevailing stimulation. Changes in gain or reference levels can partially stabilize color judgments despite different illumination or receptor signals. Adaptation is an explanatory mechanism to test; similarity on a color test does not uniquely identify its neural implementation.

Changes following exposure to variation around a mean color or luminance. Holding the mean input fixed helps distinguish adaptation to variation from a simple account based on changed average cone catch, while receptor nonlinearities and task factors still require controls.

Researcher in comparative anatomy. Chivers and collaborators compared gastrointestinal structure among Primates and other mammals in relation to diet, using variation in digestive anatomy to investigate feeding adaptations.^[ref]

An approximately 125-million-year-old Early Cretaceous mammal commonly analysed as a stem eutherian. Its informative skeleton combines eutherian affinities, epipubic bones and evidence of climbing adaptations. ^[ref]

Gene loss is evolutionary loss or functional inactivation of an inherited gene. A lineage can lose a function that has become unnecessary, obtain its product from a partner, or retain an alternative pathway. Losing a required function can instead be harmful; absence alone does not establish adaptation.

Comparative evidence must distinguish a true loss from incomplete genome assembly or a sequence that has diverged beyond recognition. Repeated joint losses of EDS1, PAD4 and associated plant immunity components illustrate how loss can reveal dependence within an interacting pathway.^[ref]

A reduction in a response following repeated stimulation, distinguished from sensory adaptation or motor fatigue. A decrease in anxiety during exposure can occur, but neither defines all therapeutic learning nor guarantees its transfer to another context.

Researcher in evolutionary genetics. Orr analyzed distributions of factors fixed during adaptation, connecting assumptions about the fitness landscape with predictions about the sizes of evolutionary steps.^[ref]

Joan Garcia-Porta is a biologist studying how organisms adapt and diversify in new environments. His research combines phylogenetics, morphology, ecology and genomics, with investigations of lizards, birds and plants. A recurring question is how environmental differences become differences among populations and species.^[ref]

In a 2019 study, Joan Garcia-Porta and collaborators combined phylogenomics and fossil calibration to reconstruct a dated phylogenetic tree of 262 species of Lacertidae. They compared this evolutionary history with occupied climate conditions, preferred body temperature and evaporative water loss. Temperate lineages showed slower molecular substitution rates than tropical and desert-adapted lineages.^[ref]

The illuminating feature is the combination of timescales: DNA differences inform relationships over evolutionary time, while physiological measurements describe what living lizards do now. Their agreement can support a proposed connection between climate and adaptation. A comparative association still needs interpretation; a phylogenetic tree alone does not experimentally demonstrate the cause of a physiological difference.

Researcher in molecular evolution. Chen and collaborators investigated the origin of an Antarctic fish antifreeze-glycoprotein gene from a trypsinogen gene, tracing a new biochemical adaptation to modification of an older genetic sequence.^[ref]

Psychological functioning and well-being considered across relevant domains and contexts. Absence of a particular diagnosis is informative but does not exhaust positive functioning, and success in one domain need not establish equal adaptation in another.

Researcher in experimental evolution. McDonald and collaborators investigated how sex changes the dynamics of adaptation, connecting genetic recombination with the competing fates of mutations in evolving populations.^[ref]

Mimulus guttatus is a yellow-flowered plant widely used in research on adaptation, hybridization and speciation. Kew treats it under the accepted name Erythranthe guttata, so the two names can refer to the same experimental species.^[ref]

Coauthor of research on the precision and speed of adaptation in bacterial chemotaxis. The work connected recovery of a signaling output with its time course, distinguishing an endpoint response from the mechanism that produces it.^[ref]