Mutationism is one of several alternatives to evolution by natural selection that have existed both before and after the publication of Charles Darwin's 1859 book On the Origin of Species. In the theory, mutation was the source of novelty, creating new forms and new species, potentially instantaneously, in sudden jumps. This was envisaged as driving evolution, which was thought to be limited by the supply of mutations.
Before Darwin, biologists commonly believed in saltationism, the possibility of large evolutionary jumps, including immediate speciation. For example, in 1822 Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire argued that species could be formed by sudden transformations, or what would later be called macromutation. Darwin opposed saltation, insisting on gradualism in evolution as geology's uniformitarianism. In 1864, Albert von Kölliker revived Geoffroy's theory. In 1901 the geneticist Hugo de Vries gave the name "mutation" to seemingly new forms that suddenly arose in his experiments on the evening primrose Oenothera lamarckiana. In the first decade of the 20th century, mutationism, or as de Vries named it mutationstheorie, became a rival to Darwinism supported for a while by geneticists including William Bateson, Thomas Hunt Morgan, and Reginald Punnett.
Understanding of mutationism is clouded by the mid-20th century portrayal of the early mutationists by supporters of the modern synthesis as opponents of Darwinian evolution and rivals of the biometrics school who argued that selection operated on continuous variation. In this portrayal, mutationism was defeated by a synthesis of genetics and natural selection that supposedly started later, around 1918, with work by the mathematician Ronald Fisher. However, the alignment of Mendelian genetics and natural selection began as early as 1902 with a paper by Udny Yule, and built up with theoretical and experimental work in Europe and America. Despite the controversy, the early mutationists had by 1918 already accepted natural selection and explained continuous variation as the result of multiple genes acting on the same characteristic, such as height.
Mutationism, along with other alternatives to Darwinism like Lamarckism and orthogenesis, was discarded by most biologists as they came to see that Mendelian genetics and natural selection could readily work together; mutation took its place as a source of the genetic variation essential for natural selection to work on. However, mutationism did not entirely vanish. In 1940, Richard Goldschmidt again argued for single-step speciation by macromutation, describing the organisms thus produced as "hopeful monsters", earning widespread ridicule. In 1987, Masatoshi Nei argued controversially that evolution was often mutation-limited. Modern biologists such as Douglas J. Futuyma conclude that essentially all claims of evolution driven by large mutations can be explained by Darwinian evolution.
Developments leading up to mutationism
Geoffroy's monstrosities, 1822
Prior to Charles Darwin, most naturalists were saltationists, believing that species evolved and that speciation took place in sudden jumps. Jean-Baptiste Lamarck was a gradualist but similar to other scientists of the period had written that saltational evolution was possible.
In 1822, in the second volume of his Philosophie anatomique, Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire endorsed a theory of saltational evolution that "monstrosities could become the founding fathers (or mothers) of new species by instantaneous transition from one form to the next." Geoffroy wrote that environmental pressures could produce sudden transformations to establish new species instantaneously.
Darwin's anti-saltationist gradualism, 1859
In his 1859 book On the Origin of Species, Charles Darwin denied saltational evolution. He argued that evolutionary transformation always proceeds gradually, never in jumps: "natural selection acts solely by accumulating slight successive favourable variations, it can produce no great or sudden modification; it can act only by very short steps". Darwin continued in this belief throughout his life.
Thomas Henry Huxley warned Darwin that he had taken on "an unnecessary difficulty in adopting Natura non facit saltum ["Nature does not take leaps"] so unreservedly."Thomas Henry Huxley. (1859). Letter to Charles Darwin. Nov. 23, 1859. Huxley feared this assumption could discourage naturalists (catastrophists) who believed that major leaps and cataclysms played a significant role in the history of life.
von Kölliker's heterogenesis, 1864
In 1864 Albert von Kölliker revived Geoffroy's theory that evolution proceeds by large steps, under the name of heterogenesis, but this time assuming the influence of a nonmaterial force to direct the course of evolution.
Galton's "sports", 1892
Darwin's cousin, Francis Galton, considered Darwin's evidence for evolution, and came to an opposite conclusion about the type of variation on which natural selection must act. He carried out his own experiments and published a series of papers and books setting out his views. Already by 1869 when he published Hereditary Genius, he believed in evolution by saltation. In his 1889 book Natural Inheritance he argued that natural selection would benefit from accepting that the steps need not, as Darwin had stated, be minute. In his 1892 book Finger Prints, he stated directly that "The progress of evolution is not a smooth and uniform progression, but one that proceeds by jerks, through successive 'sports' (as they are called), some of them implying considerable organic changes; and each in its turn being favoured by Natural Selection".
From 1860 to 1880 saltation had been a minority viewpoint, to the extent that Galton felt his writings were being universally ignored. By 1890 it became a widely held theory, and his views helped to launch a major controversy.
Bateson's discontinuous variation, 1894
William Bateson's 1894 book Materials for the Study of Variation, Treated with Especial Regard to Discontinuity in the Origin of Species marked the arrival of mutationist thinking, before the rediscovery of Mendel's laws. He examined discontinuous variation (implying a form of saltation) where it occurred naturally, following William Keith Brooks, Galton, Thomas Henry Huxley and St. George Jackson Mivart.
Early 20th century mutationism
De Vries and Mendelian mutationstheorie, 1901
Hugo de Vries's careful 1901 studies of wild variants of the evening primrose Oenothera lamarckiana showed that distinct new forms could arise suddenly in nature, apparently at random, and could be propagated for many generations without dissipation or blending. He gave such changes the name "mutation". Part 2, 1903 By this, de Vries meant that a new form of the plant was created in a single step (not the same as a mutation in the modern sense); no long period of natural selection was required for speciation, and nor was reproductive isolation. In the view of the historian of science Peter J. Bowler, De Vries used the term to mean
The historian of science Betty Smocovitis described mutationism as:
De Vries set out his position, known as Mutationstheorie (mutation theory) on the creative nature of mutation in his 1905 book Species and Varieties: their Origin by Mutation. In the view of the historian of science Edward Larson, de Vries was the person largely responsible for transforming Victorian era saltationism into early 20th century mutation theory, "and in doing so pushed Darwinism near the verge of extinction as a viable scientific theory".
Similar ideas were propounded in Imperial Russia, even before De Vries, by Sergey Korzhinsky.Georgy Plekhanov. Fundamental Problems of Marxism. New York: International Publishers, 1928. P. 139-140.
Johannsen's "pure line" experiments, 1903
In the early 1900s, Darwin's mechanism of natural selection was understood by believers in continuous variation, principally the biometricians Walter Weldon and Karl Pearson, to be able to work on a continuously varying characteristic, whereas de Vries argued that selection on such characteristics would be ineffective. Wilhelm Johannsen's "pure line" experiments on Phaseolus vulgaris beans appeared to refute this mechanism. Using the true-breeding Princess variety of bean, carefully inbred within weight classes, Johannsen's work appeared to support de Vries. The offspring had a smooth random distribution. Johanssen believed that his results showed that continuous variability was not inherited, so evolution must rely on discontinuous mutations, as de Vries had argued. Johanssen published his work in Danish in a 1903 paper Om arvelighed i samfund og i rene linier (On inheritance in populations and in pure lines),Johannsen, W. (1903) "Om arvelighed i samfund og i rene linier". Oversigt over det Kongelige Danske Videnskabernes Selskabs Forhandlinger, vol. 3: 247–270 (in Danish). German ed. Erblichkeit in Populationen und in reinen Linien [On inheritance in populations and in pure lines] (1903) Gustav Fischer, Jena. Scanned full text. and in his 1905 book Arvelighedslærens Elementer (The Elements of Heredity).
Punnett's mimicry, 1915
In 1915, Reginald Punnett argued in his book Mimicry in Butterflies that the 3 morphs (forms) of the butterfly Papilio polytes, which mimic different host species of butterfly, demonstrated discontinuous evolution in action. The different forms existed in a stable polymorphism controlled by 2 Mendelian factors (genes). The alleles of these genes were certainly discontinuous, so Punnett supposed that they must have evolved in discontinuous leaps.
The undermining of mutationism
Yule's analysis of Mendelism and continuous variation, 1902
The undermining of mutationism began almost at once, in 1902, as the statistician Udny Yule analysed Mendel's theory and showed that given full dominance of one allele over another, a 3:1 ratio of alleles would be sustained indefinitely. This meant that the recessive allele could remain in the population with no need to invoke mutation. He also showed that given multiple factors, Mendel's theory enabled continuous variation, as indeed Mendel had suggested, removing the central plank of the mutationist theory, and criticised Bateson's confrontational approach. However, the "excellent" paper did not prevent the Mendelians and the biometricians from falling out.
Nilsson-Ehle's experiments on Mendelian inheritance and continuous variation, 1908
The Swedish geneticist H. Nilsson-Ehle demonstrated in 1908, in a paper published in German in a Swedish journal, Einige Ergebnisse von Kreuzungen bei Hafer und Weizen (Observations on Crosses in Oats and Wheat), that continuous variation could readily be produced by multiple Mendelian genes. He found numerous Mendelian 3:1 ratios, implying a dominant and a recessive allele, in oats and wheat; a 15:1 ratio for a cross of oat varieties with black and white glumes respectively, implying two pairs of alleles (two Mendelian factors); and that crossing a red-grained Swedish velvet wheat with a white one gave in the third (F3) generation the complex signature of ratios expected of three factors at once, with 37 grains giving only red offspring, 8 giving 63:1 in their offspring, 12 giving 15:1, and 6 giving 3:1. There weren't any grains giving all white, but as he had only expected 1 of those in his sample, 0 was not an unlikely outcome. Genes could clearly combine in almost infinite combinations: ten of his factors allowed for almost 60,000 different forms, with no need to suppose that any new mutations were involved. The results implied that natural selection would work on Mendelian genes, helping to bring about the unification of Darwinian evolution and genetics.