Natural Selection Journals

Natural selection is a foundation of modern biology. Natural selection is the differential survival and reproduction of organisms due to differences in phenotype. It is a key mechanism of evolution, the variation in the heritable traits characteristic of a population over generations. Variation exists within all varieties of organisms. This happens partly because random mutations arise in the genome of an individual organism, and their offspring can inherit such mutations. Throughout the lives of the individuals, their genomes interact with their environments to cause changes in traits. The environment of a genome comprises the molecular biology in the cell, other cells, other individuals, populations, species, as well as the abiotic environment. Because individuals with certain variants of the trait tend to survive and reproduce more than individuals with other less successful variants, the population grows. Other criterias affecting reproductive success comprise sexual selection (now often included in natural selection) and fecundity selection.   Natural selection acts on the phenotype, the characteristics of the organism which actually interact with the environment, but the genetic (heritable) basis of any phenotype that gives that phenotype a reproductive advantage may become more common in a population.