To front-load evolution is to design the future through the present. But what does that mean? A designer may design certain cells in the present. Okay. But what of the future? Is it simply about envisioning the way these cells may evolve and designing them accordingly? Or might it go deeper than that? Might the design of cells involve the design of future ecosystems? That is, given that organisms are dependent on their ecosystems, and ecosystems can be viewed as a type of phenotype for the sum of all interacting organisms, front-loading may entail a means of directing how future ecosystems may unfold. But is that plausible?

A recent set of studies reported here indicate such design may indeed be plausible.

They say these genes, in fact, influence the evolution of an entire ecosystem.

“We’re pushing a whole new field of research,” said lead investigator Tom Whitham, Regents Professor of biological sciences at Northern Arizona University.

It’s a field that has not been explored before. After all, the idea of looking at the genes of thousands of species in even a simple community is daunting at best.

“What we’ve done is zero in on a foundation species, because not all species are as equally important ecologically,” Whitham said. The foundation, or key, species in this case is the cottonwood tree, which is the first tree to have all its genes sequenced, or mapped.

Among the genes under study are those that control the level of tannins in cottonwoods, which are dominant trees in riparian habitats in the West. Different individuals, or genotypes, of cottonwoods have different levels of tannins.

These genetically controlled tannin levels drive the structure–or phenotype–of a riparian forest, according to Whitham. Tannins affect the decomposition rate of cottonwood leaves, which in turn affects the fertility of soils, which affects the microbes in the soil, which affect the insects that live in the soil or eat the leaves, which affect the birds that feed on the insects, and so on.

I am not arguing that this is indeed an example of front-loading, but such research opens up many possible inquiries from the this teleological perspective. Some of these possible inquiries will eventually be explored in the Design Matrix series.

Speaking of the Design Matrix series, here is something else that will become relevant:

It’s a premise with far-reaching implications. Consider, for example, conservation efforts to preserve biodiversity in the face of habitat destruction, climate change and other impacts on the environment. Planting trees that are genetically diverse will result in increased diversity of other species in the dependent community. The greater the tree diversity, the greater the chance of associated species surviving environmental degradation.

“It’s not enough to save rare and endangered species. We need to save genetic diversity in the foundation species,” said Jennifer Schweitzer, a co-author of the Nature Reviews Genetics paper and postdoctoral researcher at NAU. “Having high genetic diversity in these foundation species is insurance against changes in the future.”