A.N. Severtzov Institute of Ecology and Evolution, Russian Academy of Sciences
119071 Moscow, Leninsky pr., 33
The compensatory phenotypic modifications can essentially reduce certain harmful consequences of various injuries of the organism systems resulted from traumas as well as mutations. The high phenotypic plasticity can promote for a fixation of large hereditary morphofunctional alterations. Such innovations (along with more usual small variations) can serve as the elementary evolutionary material from which the natural selection can subsequently form new adaptations and new types of organization. The directions of evolution accessible for a given species are limited by the possibilities of both its genetic and phenotypic variability.
