In the mid-1970s, Nevo started a long-term research program on the exploration, sampling, evaluation, conservation, and utilization of wild germplasms, primarily of wild cereals (wheat, barley, and oats) and later wild lettuce for crop improvement. In this program, more than 10,000 genotypes have been tested for allozyme variation of 30-50 enzymatic genes and partly for DNA variations. In addition, a battery of agronomic traits, including abiotic and biotic resistances, has been evaluated in these genotypes. Resistant and elite genotypes have been bred into hexaploid bread wheat and cultivated barley generating improved cultivars now grown extensively in the USA and Europe. Currently, the wild germplasm is utilized to generate new cultivars in Israel. These studies advanced the idea that the best hope for crop improvement resides in the highly adapted and variable wild germplasms that can be
utilized by classical breeding and modern biotechnology for crop improvement. Salt, herbicide, drought, and rust-resistant genes in wild barley and wheat have been chromosomally mapped and are currently in the process of active cloning and genetic transformation. These studies are currently being extended into the examination of extensive mapping and ancient DNA in an attempt to unravel the molecular genetics and evolution of domestication.

The “Evolution Canyon” model (“EC”) on Mount Carmel, Israel, is a microscale ecological theater examined in the mountains of Carmel (“EC” I), the Galilee (“EC” II), and the Negev (“EC” III) where the African biota meet European biota and local tests are conducted in an attempt to discover global biodiversity and genomic diversity patterns. In particular, the effects of abiotic and biotic stress factors on evolution in action, including the twin evolutionary processes of adaptation and speciation, are being extensively and intensively studied. These include biodiversity studies across phylogeny from microorganisms to mammals and the evaluation of the relative importance of the forces driving evolution (mutation, recombination, migration, genetic drift, and natural selection). To date (December 2008), about 2,500 species have been identified in “Evolution Canyon” I, more than 1,000 species in “Evolution Canyon” II, and several hundred species in “Evolution Canyon” III, including many species new to science for Israel. Model organisms are currently under in-depth study to evaluate the effects of stress on the evolutionary process. The levels and interslope divergence in natural populations of genetic polymorphisms (at the protein and
DNA levels), mutations, recombination, gene conversion, adaptive complexes, stress genes, and incipient sympatric differentiation across life are actively investigated.

In the late 1960s and continuing vigorously today, Nevo embarked upon another long-term research program aimed at unraveling patterns and processes of genetic and genomic diversity and evolution in natural populations of bacteria, plants, fungi, and animals locally, regionally, and globally, i.e., both micro- and macrogeographically, and at the protein, DNA, and chromosomal levels. The main thrust of the program involved the interface between genetics and ecology. It substantiated diverse selection theories at the level of proteins (allozymes) in single and multilocus structures, DNA (RFLP, DNA fingerprinting of miniand microsatellites, RAPD PCR, AFLP, and sequence polymorphism) and chromosomes as the best explanatory models for genetic diversity and divergence in nature. These studies rejected the neutral theory of molecular evolution as a major theory of molecular evolution, and substantiated natural selection as a primary driving force of molecular evolution, as is also true for organismal evolution.

In the early 1950s, Nevo initiated a long-term project on the speciation and adaptation of subterranean mammals, which is still ongoing. This project was primarily focused on mole rats, Spalax, in the Near East and Israel, but then extended regionally to Africa and Asia Minor, East Europe, and to other subterranean mammals in North America and across the planet. During these studies, Eibi described about 30 new biological species of subterranean mammals, mostly spalacids, based on chromosomal and genic diversity. Using multidisciplinary means, he studied their climatic adaptations involving diverse molecular (protein and DNA) and organismal (morphology, physiology, and behavior) strategies. Nevo showed that the classical species, Spalax ehrenbergi, is a complex of at least 12 biological
allospecies, some in the final stages of species formation. These studies in Israel were summarized in a monograph describing Spalax as a uniquely productive and rich evolutionary model of speciation and adaptation at the molecular and organismal levels, followed by two additional monographs. The first monograph was devoted to mosaic evolution that included the regression, progression, and convergent evolution of subterranean mammals across the planet, with more than 250 species in 11 families and three mammalian orders (Nevo, 1999.
Mosaic Evolution of Subterranean Mammals. Oxford University Press). The second monograph analyzed the Pleistocene active speciation and adaptive radiation of four species of the S. ehrenbergi superspecies, each adapted to a different climatic regime in Israel (Nevo et al., 2001. Adaptive Radiation of Blind Subterranean Mole Rats. Backhuys Publ.).