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Abstract
Historically, evolutionary biology has been considered an observational science. Examining
populations and inferring evolutionary histories mold evolutionary theories. In contrast,
laboratory evolution experiments make use of the amenability of traditional model
organisms to study fundamental processes underlying evolution in real time in simple,
but well-controlled, environments. With advances in high-throughput biology and next
generation sequencing, it is now possible to propagate hundreds of parallel populations
over thousands of generations and to quantify precisely the frequencies of various
mutations over time. Experimental evolution combines the ability to simultaneously
monitor replicate populations with the power to vary individual parameters to test
specific evolutionary hypotheses, something that is impractical or infeasible in natural
populations. Many labs are now conducting laboratory evolution experiments in nearly
all model systems including viruses, bacteria, yeast, nematodes, and fruit flies.
Among these systems, fungi occupy a unique niche: with a short generation time, small
compact genomes, and sexual cycles, fungi are a particularly valuable and largely
untapped resource for propelling future growth in the field of experimental evolution.
Here, we describe the current state of fungal experimental evolution and why fungi
are uniquely positioned to answer many of the outstanding questions in the field.
We also review which fungal species are most well suited for experimental evolution.