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FITNESS LANDSCAPES

Life finds a way

Nature Ecology & Evolution volume 6, pages 1599–1600 (2022)Cite this article

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Fitness landscapes were described almost a century ago as smooth surfaces with peaks and valleys that are difficult to navigate. Now, more realistic high-dimensional genotype–phenotype maps show that fitness maxima can be reached from almost any other phenotype while avoiding fitness valleys, which are very rare.

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Fig. 1: Evolution of fitness landscapes from Wright to the present day.

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Acknowledgements

J.A. is supported by Project PID2021-122936NB-I00 from MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and by “ERDF A way of making Europe”.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centro de Astrobiología (CAB), CSIC-INTA, Carretera de Ajalvir, Torrejón de Ardoz, Madrid, Spain

    Jacobo Aguirre

  2. Grupo Interdisciplinar de Sistemas Complejos (GISC), Madrid, Spain

    Jacobo Aguirre

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  1. Jacobo Aguirre
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Correspondence to Jacobo Aguirre.

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The author declares no competing interests.

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Aguirre, J. Life finds a way. Nat Ecol Evol 6, 1599–1600 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-022-01877-x

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