title: [Evolutionary process unveiled by the maximum genetic diversity hypothesis].
abstract: As two major popular theories to explain evolutionary facts, the neutral theory and Neo-Darwinism, despite their proven virtues in certain areas, still fail to offer comprehensive explanations to such fundamental evolutionary phenomena as the genetic equidistance result, abundant overlap sites, increase in complexity over time, incomplete understanding of genetic diversity, and inconsistencies with fossil and archaeological records. Maximum genetic diversity hypothesis (MGD), however, constructs a more complete evolutionary genetics theory that incorporates all of the proven virtues of existing theories and adds to them the novel concept of a maximum or optimum limit on genetic distance or diversity. It has yet to meet a contradiction and explained for the first time the half-century old Genetic Equidistance phenomenon as well as most other major evolutionary facts. It provides practical and quantitative ways of studying complexity. Molecular interpretation using MGD-based methods reveal novel insights on the origins of humans and other primates that are consistent with fossil evidence and common sense, and reestablished the important role of China in the evolution of humans. MGD theory has also uncovered an important genetic mechanism in the construction of complex traits and the pathogenesis of complex diseases. We here made a series of sequence comparisons among yeasts, fishes and primates to illustrate the concept of limit on genetic distance. The idea of limit or optimum is in line with the yin-yang paradigm in the traditional Chinese view of the universal creative law in nature.
authors.affiliation: Central South University, Changsha, China. 3702080110@csu.edu.cn
authors.forename: Yi-Min
authors.initials: YM
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: Meng-Ying
authors.initials: MY
authors.lastname: Xia
authors.forename: Shi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Huang
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D005075:Biological Evolution; D014644:Genetic Variation; D006801:Humans; D008957:Models, Genetic; D009154:Mutation; D012641:Selection, Genetic