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NotSanguine writes:

Complex life evolved here on Earth, but we still don't clearly understand the forces and mechanisms which drove evolution in that direction. Could those same factors exist elsewhere in our solar system and beyond?

An evolutionary geneticist, Frank Rosenzweig with financial assistance from NASA is going to spend the next five years trying to gain some clarity, as phys.org is reporting.

The University of Montana researcher is studying how life evolves complex traits in his lab. From the Phys.org article (which is an interesting read, BTW):

"Over my career, I've been interested in what are the genetic bases of adaptation and how do complex communities evolve from single clones," Rosenzweig said. "Related to these questions are others such as how do the genetic 'starting point' and ecological setting influence the tempo and trajectory of evolutionary change."

...

Rosenzweig's previous NASA funding came from the Exobiology and Evolutionary Biology Program. The first project, initiated in 2007, examined how genetic material (or genomes) evolve in yeast species that were cultured under limited resources. A second project, initiated in 2010, is investigating how founder cells in E. coli genotypes, and the environment in which they evolve, influence the diversity and stability of subsequent populations.

The first project led to an unexpected finding: stress may increase the frequency with which genome sequences are rearranged. Stress introduces new chromosomal variants into the species' population that could prove beneficial under challenging circumstances. Indeed, previous studies have indicated that new chromosomal variants are stress resistant. In 2013, Rosenzweig's team, led by University of Montana research professor Eugene Kroll, began studying how yeast cultures respond to starvation.

The yeast research was reported in a paper published on PLOS one in July, 2013.