chance and evolution

[John Grehan]

 In the absence of fitness effects (i.e.,
>natural selection), the odds of ANY mutant spreading are the same, no
>matter whether it was a "directed" mutational event or not.

I think this is the crux of the matter. If mutants were able to convert
their counterparts through sexual reproduction between individual organisms,
 then they would spread. This has been the arguement of Dover. However,
there is dispute about the genetic conversion process acting within an
individual also
being responsible for the spread of novelty  through a population so there
is some controversey among geneticists. My interest is in the potential
correspondence between these genetic models and orthogenetic concepts.
Whether these or other molecular genetic models will prove to have
such a mode of action will certainly be of interest.

John Grehan