What is co-adaptation?

1 Answer
Apr 29, 2017

The process by which two or more species, traits, organs, or genes undergo adaptation as a pair or group is called as co adaptation.

Explanation:

This occurs when two or more characteristics undergo natural selection together, as a response to the same selective pressure.

In a broader sense co adaptation refers to the mutual adaptation of:
1) species, which may come to depend upon each other.

2) genes, so that a gene may be favoured by selection if it is in the same individual as a particular gene at another locus.

3) parts within an organism, which may be complex and require mutually adjusted changes in more than one of their parts.

Co adaptation and its specific examples are often seen as evidence for the broader process of co evolution.

Co evolution and co adaptation are an integral part of the biological evolution of plants, animals and micro organisms that live together in the same ecosystem.