Why Fund Research Into Evolution

Finding funding for pure evolutionary research is difficult as people view it as

unapplied research. As most funders believed, compared to the research that ultimately
mitigates emergent world crises such as climate change, crop yields, and human cancer and
diseases, evolutionary research is not the priority of funding. However, evolutionary research
only seems unapplied superficially. Its impact stretches beyond answering people’s curiosity
about how living organisms become the way they are today. By showing how the study of
evolution revolutionized the understanding across the fields from history, and human diseases
to biochemistry, it’s clear that evolution research is equally important to fund.
To begin, the methods developed from studying evolution revolutionized other fields
of study such as history and genetic diseases. For example, before the development of
sequencing ancient DNA for evolution, the study of history mainly relied on written records,
remains of human skeletons, and architects. However, it’s easy to relate the found human
skeleton to a wrong historical event or to reconstruct the historical event just by analyzing the
shape of the human skeleton. This is what happened in analyzing the human skeleton found
in a well in Norwich, UK that died between 1161 and 1216. Historians once suggested that
they died from plague or starvation, but now with the methods to sequence ancient DNA
developed by Svante Pääbo during his research in human evolution, researchers like Dr.
Selina Brace discovered the similarity between those skeletons and the modern Ashkenazi
Jewish population (Brace et al., 2022). Therefore, this finding overthrew the original
conclusion about the individuals were died from the plague but supported they were
murdered by the anti-Jewish riot that took place in Norwich (Brace et al., 2022). Similarly,
the technology developed in evolution research helped the study of genetic diseases, as Brace
also found that these skeletons already contain sequences of genetic diseases that are
particularly in the modern Ashkenazi populations (Brace et al., 2022). This suggested that the
bottleneck effect happened not around 500-700 years ago, as previously thought, but occurred
before 1190. Therefore, pure evolution research that seems to have no impact is still worth
funding as its application can revolutionize other fields even if the impact is not shown in the
short term. More importantly, the application for evolution is not only restrained to shedding
light on history but also has nonnegligible importance in current health studies.
When funding research for combatting human diseases, evolution is also worth
funding because the development of the disease itself is a process of evolution. The benefit of
studying the evolution of pathogens such as how the pathogen evolves its ability to infect
humans can help researchers interfere with such evolution in the future. For example, it is
well known that SARS-COV-1, which caused 8098 deaths worldwide in 2003 according to
the CDC, is similar to SARS-COV-2 in both viruses use the angiotensin-converting enzyme 2
(ACE2) to bind to the human cell. If not investigating the process of evolution of how ACEs
trait is spreading within the class of Sarbecovirus, it’s likely to cause similar disease
outbreaks in the future. In fact, by building a phylogenetic tree and applying the principle of
parsimony, Wells from Columbia University found that SARS-COV-1 obtained the ACE2
trait from SARS-COV-2 by recombination instead of convergent evolution (see Figure 1)
(Wells et al., 2021). As a result, strategies to prevent future diseases can be effectively
developed from evolutionary research such as increasing the surveillance of Sarbecovirus in
Yunnan and the host species (Wells et al., 2021). Moreover, by tracing the phylogenetic
position of SARS-COV-2, biologists can identify possible viruses that might also cause
diseases. Hence, funding research in the evolution of pathogens gives substantial insights into
the strategies to prevent the next global health issues.

Figure 1. The evolution of ACE2-usage in 5 lineages of Sarbecovirus. Based on the principle

of parsimony, the traits of ACE2 in SARS-COV-1 from lineage 1 is most likely to be gained
from recombination. Modified from (Wells et al., 2021).
 In contrast to the belief that research about evolution and biochemistry are separated,
funding research about the evolution of biochemical processes reveals its hidden function.
For example, DNA methylation, a process of adding a methyl group to the cytosine, has been
known for a long time to repress the gene and plays an important role in embryonic
development and X-chromosome inactivation (Grady & Ulrich, 2007). However, the fact that
fruit flies and some species in nematodes evolve to not have DNA methylation intrigued
Silvana Rošić to further investigate why DNA methylation is absent in the evolution of some
species in nematodes. Since species of nematodes that are unable to perform DNA
methylation also lack the gene to correct alkylation (ALKB2 gene) and genetically deletion
of ALKB2 gene caused approximately 15% increase in the rate of cytosine methylation,
Rošić had been able to link DNA methylation to an unprecedented function-- DNA alkylation
damage (Rošić et al., 2018). This discovery is significant because only external alkylating
agents had been identified before in 2007, but now one of the endogenous DNA alkylation
agents was also identified (Grady & Ulrich, 2007). Hence, funding research in the driving
factor of the evolution of biochemical processes provides a new understanding of their
function.
Overall, the use of ancient DNA sequencing that developed in evolutionary research
in history, the understanding of how diseases evolve the traits to infect humans, and the
insights into the hidden function of biochemistry pathways are proofs of the significant
impact of evolutionary research across the fields even beyond science. All of the diseases and
biochemical process, in essence, is the product of evolution. By studying their evolution,
biologists are not only able to answer the surface of how reaction and disease work but also
answer three of Tinbergen’s four questions: How does the trait develop, what did the trait
evolve from, and what is the function of the trait in terms of providing benefits in the
biochemistry and in natural selection. Hence, funding research in evolution is essential for a
thorough understanding of almost all concepts of biology.

It's also worth discussing why research that are not at all applied is good for funding. The
main problem is your argument, what you trying to say is not so obvious to the reader.
Before you start the example, stress your point first. You also need more explanation of how
your example illustrated your point. If you can be concise and easy to understand in oral and
visual form, do a PPT first before you write.
BUT!!! Introduction paragraph is clearer than before now. Now, you just have to work on
your body paragraph! Make it clearer!

References:
Brace, S., Diekmann, Y., Booth, T., Macleod, R., Timpson, A., Stephen, W., Emery, G.,
Cabot, S., Thomas, M.G. & Barnes, I. (2022) Genomes from a medieval mass burial show
Ashkenazi-associated hereditary diseases pre-date the 12th century. Current Biology. 32 (20),
4350-4359.e6. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2022.08.036.

Grady, W.M. & Ulrich, C.M. (2007) DNA alkylation and DNA methylation: cooperating
mechanisms driving the formation of colorectal adenomas and adenocarcinomas? Gut. 56 (3),
318–320. doi:10.1136/gut.2006.106849.

Rošić, S., Amouroux, R., Requena, C.E., Gomes, A., Emperle, M., Beltran, T., Rane, J.K.,
Linnett, S., Selkirk, M.E., Schiffer, P.H., Bancroft, A.J., Grencis, R.K., Jeltsch, A., Hajkova,
P. & Sarkies, P. (2018) Evolutionary analysis indicates that DNA alkylation damage is a
byproduct of cytosine DNA methyltransferase activity. Nature Genetics. 50 (3), 452–459.
doi:10.1038/s41588-018-0061-8.

Wells, H.L., Letko, M., Lasso, G., Ssebide, B., Nziza, J., et al. (2021) The evolutionary
history of ACE2 usage within the coronavirus subgenus Sarbecovirus. Virus Evolution. 7 (1),
veab007. doi:10.1093/ve/veab007.

Questions
1. How you have avoided plagiarism
I avoided plagiarism by taking notes in summarizing the findings in the paper and
explaining how they connected to my point. I also include in-text citations.

2. Make use of any available feedback on your previous writing to improve this essay
I improved by shortening the caption of the figure, avoiding repetition, and using the
PEER (Point, Example, Explanation, Relationship) Outline before I start writing,
which can help my writing be more organized.