Breaking selective constraints: is Hsps90 a capacitor of evolutionary change?

Understanding the origin of pheotypic variability is fundamental importance to evolutionary biology. Whether or not adaptive changes occur depends critically on how genetic variability translates into heritable phenotypic variability. It has been shown that genetic variability can be masked by developmental processes. Mechanisms that regulate the expression of genetic variability have the potential to influence evolutionary change. Despite the fundamental importance of phenotypic variability to adaptive evolution, the molecular mechanisms that underlie the genetic regulation of phenotypic variability remain unknown. I intend to determine whether the major heat-shock protein Hsp90 represents such a mechanism.