Individual point mutations in DNA provide a mechanism by which organisms evolve altered proteins that can prove to be advantageous. However, this explanation for the successful adaptation of an organism to a novel environment is problematic, as colonization of specific niches should require multiple gene interactions that are unlikely to occur by single sequential genetic alterations. In the August 7 Sciencexpress, Loren Rieseberg and colleagues at Indiana University investigate the effect of hybridization in sunflowers as a means of providing variation that incorporates both the multigene requirement and the rapid acquisition of successful traits for adaptation to extreme environments (Sciencexpress, DOI:10.1126/science.1086949, August 7, 2003).