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	<title>HUMACON &#187; Biologie</title>
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	<description>Conservation of the Human Being</description>
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		<title>Environmentalists try to ban release of synthetic life forms into the wild</title>
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		<pubDate>Mon, 24 May 2010 13:41:17 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Biologie]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Environment]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[synthetic life forms]]></category>
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		<description><![CDATA[Environmentalists have begun a concerted campaign to ensure that new forms of "artificial life" are never released into the wider environment because of fears that the life-forms will hasten the extinction of wild species.]]></description>
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		<title>Detroit: From Motor City To Urban Farm?</title>
		<link>http://www.humacon.org/2010/05/24/detroit-from-motor-city-to-urban-farm/#utm_source=feed&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_campaign=feed</link>
		<comments>http://www.humacon.org/2010/05/24/detroit-from-motor-city-to-urban-farm/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 24 May 2010 12:49:34 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Biologie]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Environment]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[farm]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[plan]]></category>

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		<description><![CDATA[Detroit was once the 4th largest city in America and it held the title of Motor City because most of America’s cars came from there. Flash forward 40 years, and Detroit’s population has dwindled from a high of 2 million people to just over 800,000. The average price for a home in Detroit is $15,000, the lowest in the country. With so many empty spaces, criminals have no shortage of hideouts and drug factories. And with America’s auto industry still reeling from the recession, as well as having outsourced many jobs to other states (or countries), the future looks bleak for Detroit’s long-deferred recovery.]]></description>
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		<title>How Viruses Destroy Bacteria</title>
		<link>http://www.humacon.org/2009/11/19/how-viruses-destroy-bacteria/#utm_source=feed&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_campaign=feed</link>
		<comments>http://www.humacon.org/2009/11/19/how-viruses-destroy-bacteria/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 19 Nov 2009 17:44:35 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Biologie]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Science]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Technology]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[bacteria]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[virus]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.humacon.org/?p=711</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Viruses are well known for attacking humans and animals, but some viruses instead attack bacteria. Texas A&#038;M University researchers are exploring how hungry viruses, armed with transformer-like weapons, attack bacteria, which may aid in the treatment of bacterial infections.]]></description>
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		<title>Oceans in need: Increased carbon dioxide concentration threatens the water world.</title>
		<link>http://www.humacon.org/2009/11/17/oceans-in-need-increased-carbon-dioxide-concentration-threatens-the-water-world/#utm_source=feed&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_campaign=feed</link>
		<comments>http://www.humacon.org/2009/11/17/oceans-in-need-increased-carbon-dioxide-concentration-threatens-the-water-world/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 17 Nov 2009 14:15:19 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Biologie]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Environment]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[carbon]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[oceans]]></category>

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		<description><![CDATA[Acid ocean dissolves shellfish

The increase of carbon dioxide ensures not only that the earth warms significantly, it also represents a threat to the oceans. The carbon dioxide, or CO2 acidifies the seawater and shellfish and corals affected fields. Especially the polar regions are in danger.]]></description>
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		<title>Welcome to the Clone Farm</title>
		<link>http://www.humacon.org/2009/11/16/welcome-to-the-clone-farm/#utm_source=feed&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_campaign=feed</link>
		<comments>http://www.humacon.org/2009/11/16/welcome-to-the-clone-farm/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 16 Nov 2009 15:31:49 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Biologie]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Science]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Technology]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[clone]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[cow]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[farm]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.humacon.org/?p=692</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[ENID, Oklahoma (Reuters) - To the untrained eye, Pollard Farms looks much like any other cattle ranch. Similar looking cows are huddled in similar looking pens. But some of the cattle here don't just resemble each other. They are literally identical -- clear down to their genes.]]></description>
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		<title>Self-Cleaning Silicone Gel Insect Wings</title>
		<link>http://www.humacon.org/2009/11/16/self-cleaning-silicone-gel-insect-wings/#utm_source=feed&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_campaign=feed</link>
		<comments>http://www.humacon.org/2009/11/16/self-cleaning-silicone-gel-insect-wings/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 16 Nov 2009 12:40:27 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Biologie]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[nanotech]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[cleaning]]></category>

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		<description><![CDATA[Researchers in Australia and the UK are flying the idea that insect wings could act as a model for making self-cleaning, frictionless, and superhydrophobic materials. They discuss the latest developments in their laboratories in a forthcoming issue of the International Journal of Nanomanufacturing.]]></description>
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		<title>The Curious Case of the Immortal Jellyfish</title>
		<link>http://www.humacon.org/2009/11/14/the-curious-case-of-the-immortal-jellyfish/#utm_source=feed&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_campaign=feed</link>
		<comments>http://www.humacon.org/2009/11/14/the-curious-case-of-the-immortal-jellyfish/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 14 Nov 2009 12:15:18 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Biologie]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[immortal]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[jellyfish]]></category>

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		<description><![CDATA[It’s official: the only thing certain in this world is taxes. That’s because death, for a tiny sea creature, is not inevitable.Turritopsis nutricul, a jellyfish-like hydrazoan, is the only animal known to be potentially immortal.]]></description>
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		<title>The Frame Hotel, growing a green forest in the desert</title>
		<link>http://www.humacon.org/2009/10/28/the-frame-hotel-growing-a-green-forest-in-the-desert/#utm_source=feed&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_campaign=feed</link>
		<comments>http://www.humacon.org/2009/10/28/the-frame-hotel-growing-a-green-forest-in-the-desert/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 28 Oct 2009 13:19:30 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Biologie]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Technology]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[desert]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[forest]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.humacon.org/?p=590</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[An entry at the WAN Awards 2009, the Frame Hotel is a simple yet modern structure that pioneers a new form of architectural design to create an imposing aesthetics while sustaining the environment. Designed for Villamoda Galleries in Dubai, UAE, the structure accommodates a vast vertical garden enclosed in a huge frame, which apart from limiting the built-up areas also determines the exterior facade of the massive hotel building. Featuring a plant-like structure cut out from the constructive frame, the architecture is covered by perpendicular planes of solar protected dark glass to create a dynamic parallaxical vision, while protecting the structure from sun and wind.
]]></description>
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		<title>Seeing Blue: Fish Vision Discovery Makes Waves In Evolutionary Biology</title>
		<link>http://www.humacon.org/2009/10/19/seeing-blue-fish-vision-discovery-makes-waves-in-evolutionary-biology/#utm_source=feed&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_campaign=feed</link>
		<comments>http://www.humacon.org/2009/10/19/seeing-blue-fish-vision-discovery-makes-waves-in-evolutionary-biology/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 19 Oct 2009 11:26:26 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Biologie]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.humacon.org/?p=535</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Emory University researchers have identified the first fish known to have switched from ultraviolet vision to violet vision, or the ability to see blue light. The discovery is also the first example of an animal deleting a molecule to change its visual spectrum.
 


Their findings on scabbardfish, linking molecular evolution to functional changes and the [...]]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://www.humacon.org/2009/10/19/seeing-blue-fish-vision-discovery-makes-waves-in-evolutionary-biology/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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		<title>Time In A Bottle: Scientists Watch Evolution Unfold</title>
		<link>http://www.humacon.org/2009/10/19/time-in-a-bottle-scientists-watch-evolution-unfold/#utm_source=feed&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_campaign=feed</link>
		<comments>http://www.humacon.org/2009/10/19/time-in-a-bottle-scientists-watch-evolution-unfold/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 19 Oct 2009 11:18:35 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Biologie]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Science]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[bacteria]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[evolution]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.humacon.org/?p=529</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[A 21-year Michigan State University experiment that distills the essence of evolution in laboratory flasks not only demonstrates natural selection at work, but could lead to biotechnology and medical research advances, researchers said.
 


Charles Darwin&#8217;s seminal Origin of Species first laid out the case for evolution exactly 150 years ago. Now, MSU professor Richard Lenski [...]]]></description>
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Start uga_filter: <p><strong>Emory University researchers have identified the first fish known to have switched from ultraviolet vision to violet vision, or the ability to see blue light. The discovery is also the first example of an animal deleting a molecule to change its visual spectrum.</strong></p>
<p><strong> </strong></p>
<p><strong></p>
<p></strong></p>
<p>Their findings on scabbardfish, linking molecular evolution to functional changes and the possible environmental factors driving them, were published Oct. 13 in the <em>Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences</em>.</p>
<p>&#8220;This multi-dimensional approach strengthens the case for the importance of adaptive evolution,&#8221; says evolutionary geneticist Shozo Yokoyama, who led the study. &#8220;Building on this framework will take studies of natural selection to the next level.&#8221;</p>
<p>The research team included Takashi Tada, a post-doctoral fellow in biology, and Ahmet Altun, a post-doctoral fellow in biology and computational chemistry.</p>
<p><strong>Vision &#8216;like a painting&#8217;</strong></p>
<p>For two decades, Yokoyama has done groundbreaking work on the adaptive evolution of vision in vertebrates. Vision serves as a good study model, since it is the simplest of the sensory systems. For example, only four genes are involved in human vision.</p>
<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s amazing, but you can mix together this small number of genes and detect a whole color spectrum,&#8221; Yokoyama says. &#8220;It&#8217;s just like a painting.&#8221;</p>
<p>The common vertebrate ancestor possessed UV vision. However, many species, including humans, have switched from UV to violet vision, or the ability to sense the blue color spectrum.</p>
<p><strong>From the ocean depths</strong></p>
<p>Fish provide clues for how environmental factors can lead to such vision changes, since the available light at various ocean depths is well quantified. All fish previously studied have retained UV vision, but the Emory researchers found that the scabbardfish has not. To tease out the molecular basis for this difference, they used genetic engineering, quantum chemistry and theoretical computation to compare vision proteins and pigments from scabbardfish and another species, lampfish. The results indicated that scabbardfish shifted from UV to violet vision by deleting the molecule at site 86 in the chain of amino acids in the opsin protein.</p>
<p>&#8220;Normally, amino acid changes cause small structure changes, but in this case, a critical amino acid was deleted,&#8221; Yokoyama says.</p>
<p><strong>More examples likely</strong></p>
<p>&#8220;The finding implies that we can find more examples of a similar switch to violet vision in different fish lineages,&#8221; he adds. &#8220;Comparing violet and UV pigments in fish living in different habitats will open an unprecedented opportunity to clarify the molecular basis of phenotypic adaptations, along with the genetics of UV and violet vision.&#8221;</p>
<p>Scabbardfish spend much of their life at depths of 25 to 100 meters, where UV light is less intense than violet light, which could explain why they made the vision shift, Yokoyama theorizes. Lampfish also spend much of their time in deep water. But they may have retained UV vision because they feed near the surface at twilight on tiny, translucent crustaceans that are easier to see in UV light.</p>
<p><strong>A framework for evolutionary biology</strong></p>
<p>Last year, Yokoyama and collaborators completed a comprehensive project to track changes in the dim-light vision protein opsin in nine fish species, chameleons, dolphins and elephants, as the animals spread into new environments and diversified over time. The researchers found that adaptive changes occur by a small number of amino acid substitutions, but most substitutions do not lead to functional changes.</p>
<p>Their results provided a reference framework for further research, and helped bring to light the limitations of studies that rely on statistical analysis of gene sequences alone to identify adaptive mutations in proteins.</p>
<p>&#8220;Evolutionary biology is filled with arguments that are misleading, at best,&#8221; Yokoyama says. &#8220;To make a strong case for the mechanisms of natural selection, you have to connect changes in specific molecules with changes in phenotypes, and then you have to connect these changes to the living environment.&#8221;</p>

Start uga_in_feed
Ending uga_in_feed: 1
Ending uga_filter: <p><strong>Emory University researchers have identified the first fish known to have switched from ultraviolet vision to violet vision, or the ability to see blue light. The discovery is also the first example of an animal deleting a molecule to change its visual spectrum.</strong></p>
<p><strong> </strong></p>
<p><strong></p>
<p></strong></p>
<p>Their findings on scabbardfish, linking molecular evolution to functional changes and the possible environmental factors driving them, were published Oct. 13 in the <em>Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences</em>.</p>
<p>&#8220;This multi-dimensional approach strengthens the case for the importance of adaptive evolution,&#8221; says evolutionary geneticist Shozo Yokoyama, who led the study. &#8220;Building on this framework will take studies of natural selection to the next level.&#8221;</p>
<p>The research team included Takashi Tada, a post-doctoral fellow in biology, and Ahmet Altun, a post-doctoral fellow in biology and computational chemistry.</p>
<p><strong>Vision &#8216;like a painting&#8217;</strong></p>
<p>For two decades, Yokoyama has done groundbreaking work on the adaptive evolution of vision in vertebrates. Vision serves as a good study model, since it is the simplest of the sensory systems. For example, only four genes are involved in human vision.</p>
<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s amazing, but you can mix together this small number of genes and detect a whole color spectrum,&#8221; Yokoyama says. &#8220;It&#8217;s just like a painting.&#8221;</p>
<p>The common vertebrate ancestor possessed UV vision. However, many species, including humans, have switched from UV to violet vision, or the ability to sense the blue color spectrum.</p>
<p><strong>From the ocean depths</strong></p>
<p>Fish provide clues for how environmental factors can lead to such vision changes, since the available light at various ocean depths is well quantified. All fish previously studied have retained UV vision, but the Emory researchers found that the scabbardfish has not. To tease out the molecular basis for this difference, they used genetic engineering, quantum chemistry and theoretical computation to compare vision proteins and pigments from scabbardfish and another species, lampfish. The results indicated that scabbardfish shifted from UV to violet vision by deleting the molecule at site 86 in the chain of amino acids in the opsin protein.</p>
<p>&#8220;Normally, amino acid changes cause small structure changes, but in this case, a critical amino acid was deleted,&#8221; Yokoyama says.</p>
<p><strong>More examples likely</strong></p>
<p>&#8220;The finding implies that we can find more examples of a similar switch to violet vision in different fish lineages,&#8221; he adds. &#8220;Comparing violet and UV pigments in fish living in different habitats will open an unprecedented opportunity to clarify the molecular basis of phenotypic adaptations, along with the genetics of UV and violet vision.&#8221;</p>
<p>Scabbardfish spend much of their life at depths of 25 to 100 meters, where UV light is less intense than violet light, which could explain why they made the vision shift, Yokoyama theorizes. Lampfish also spend much of their time in deep water. But they may have retained UV vision because they feed near the surface at twilight on tiny, translucent crustaceans that are easier to see in UV light.</p>
<p><strong>A framework for evolutionary biology</strong></p>
<p>Last year, Yokoyama and collaborators completed a comprehensive project to track changes in the dim-light vision protein opsin in nine fish species, chameleons, dolphins and elephants, as the animals spread into new environments and diversified over time. The researchers found that adaptive changes occur by a small number of amino acid substitutions, but most substitutions do not lead to functional changes.</p>
<p>Their results provided a reference framework for further research, and helped bring to light the limitations of studies that rely on statistical analysis of gene sequences alone to identify adaptive mutations in proteins.</p>
<p>&#8220;Evolutionary biology is filled with arguments that are misleading, at best,&#8221; Yokoyama says. &#8220;To make a strong case for the mechanisms of natural selection, you have to connect changes in specific molecules with changes in phenotypes, and then you have to connect these changes to the living environment.&#8221;</p>

Start uga_filter: <p><strong>A 21-year Michigan State University experiment that distills the essence of evolution in laboratory flasks not only demonstrates natural selection at work, but could lead to biotechnology and medical research advances, researchers said.</strong></p>
<p><strong> </strong></p>
<p><strong></p>
<p></strong></p>
<p>Charles Darwin&#8217;s seminal <em>Origin of Species</em> first laid out the case for evolution exactly 150 years ago. Now, MSU professor Richard Lenski and colleagues document the process in their analysis of 40,000 generations of bacteria, published this week in the international science journal <em>Nature</em>.</p>
<p>Lenski, Hannah Professor of Microbial Ecology at MSU, started growing cultures of fast-reproducing, single-celled E. coli bacteria in 1988. If a genetic mutation gives a cell an advantage in competition for food, he reasoned, it should dominate the entire culture. While Darwin&#8217;s theory of natural selection is supported by other studies, it has never before been studied for so many cycles and in such detail.</p>
<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s extra nice now to be able to show precisely how selection has changed the genomes of these bacteria, step by step over tens of thousands of generations,&#8221; Lenski said.</p>
<p>Lenski&#8217;s team periodically froze bacteria for later study, and technology has since developed to allow complete genetic sequencing. By the 20,000-generation midpoint, researchers discovered 45 mutations among surviving cells. Those mutations, according to Darwin&#8217;s theory, should have conferred some advantage, and that&#8217;s exactly what the researchers found.</p>
<p>The results &#8220;beautifully emphasize the succession of mutational events that allowed these organisms to climb toward higher and higher efficiency in their environment,&#8221; noted Dominique Schneider, a molecular geneticist at the Université Joseph Fourier in Grenoble, France.</p>
<p>Lenski&#8217;s long-running experiment itself is uniquely suited to answer some critical questions &#8212; such as whether rates of change in a bacteria&#8217;s genome move in tandem with its fitness to survive.</p>
<p>&#8220;The coupling between genomic and adaptive evolution is complex and can be counterintuitive,&#8221; Lenski concluded. &#8220;The genome was evolving along at a surprisingly constant rate, even as the adaptation of the bacteria slowed down a lot. But then suddenly the mutation rate jumped way up, and a new dynamic relationship was established.&#8221;</p>
<p>A mutation involved in DNA metabolism arose around generation 26,000, causing the mutation rate everywhere else in the genome to increase dramatically. The number of mutations jumped to 653 by generation 40,000, but researchers surmise that most of the late-evolving mutations were not helpful to the bacteria.</p>
<p>Gene mutations involved in human DNA replication are involved in some cancers. Many of the patterns observed in the experiment also occur in certain microbial infections, &#8220;and cancer progression is a fundamentally similar evolutionary process,&#8221; observed collaborator Jeffrey Barrick. &#8220;So what we learn here can help us better understand the course of these diseases.&#8221;</p>
<p>Barrick, a postdoctoral researcher in MSU&#8217;s Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, developed computational tools to discover and validate often complex mutations. &#8220;We know an astounding amount about the details of evolution in these little Erlenmeyer flasks,&#8221; he said.</p>
<p>The <em>Nature</em> paper involved collaboration with scientists from South Korea as well as France and MSU. The research, said genomics team leader Jihyun Kim of the Korea Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology, &#8220;is not only useful in understanding the tempo and mode of evolution, but can serve as a nice framework for practical applications in biotechnology, such as improving the performance or productivity of an industrial strain.&#8221;</p>
<p>Thousands of generations later, the MSU experiment continues to evolve. &#8220;Like a lot of science, our study answers some questions but raises many others,&#8221; Lenski said.</p>
<p>The research has been supported by the National Science Foundation and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.</p>

Start uga_in_feed
Ending uga_in_feed: 1
Ending uga_filter: <p><strong>A 21-year Michigan State University experiment that distills the essence of evolution in laboratory flasks not only demonstrates natural selection at work, but could lead to biotechnology and medical research advances, researchers said.</strong></p>
<p><strong> </strong></p>
<p><strong></p>
<p></strong></p>
<p>Charles Darwin&#8217;s seminal <em>Origin of Species</em> first laid out the case for evolution exactly 150 years ago. Now, MSU professor Richard Lenski and colleagues document the process in their analysis of 40,000 generations of bacteria, published this week in the international science journal <em>Nature</em>.</p>
<p>Lenski, Hannah Professor of Microbial Ecology at MSU, started growing cultures of fast-reproducing, single-celled E. coli bacteria in 1988. If a genetic mutation gives a cell an advantage in competition for food, he reasoned, it should dominate the entire culture. While Darwin&#8217;s theory of natural selection is supported by other studies, it has never before been studied for so many cycles and in such detail.</p>
<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s extra nice now to be able to show precisely how selection has changed the genomes of these bacteria, step by step over tens of thousands of generations,&#8221; Lenski said.</p>
<p>Lenski&#8217;s team periodically froze bacteria for later study, and technology has since developed to allow complete genetic sequencing. By the 20,000-generation midpoint, researchers discovered 45 mutations among surviving cells. Those mutations, according to Darwin&#8217;s theory, should have conferred some advantage, and that&#8217;s exactly what the researchers found.</p>
<p>The results &#8220;beautifully emphasize the succession of mutational events that allowed these organisms to climb toward higher and higher efficiency in their environment,&#8221; noted Dominique Schneider, a molecular geneticist at the Université Joseph Fourier in Grenoble, France.</p>
<p>Lenski&#8217;s long-running experiment itself is uniquely suited to answer some critical questions &#8212; such as whether rates of change in a bacteria&#8217;s genome move in tandem with its fitness to survive.</p>
<p>&#8220;The coupling between genomic and adaptive evolution is complex and can be counterintuitive,&#8221; Lenski concluded. &#8220;The genome was evolving along at a surprisingly constant rate, even as the adaptation of the bacteria slowed down a lot. But then suddenly the mutation rate jumped way up, and a new dynamic relationship was established.&#8221;</p>
<p>A mutation involved in DNA metabolism arose around generation 26,000, causing the mutation rate everywhere else in the genome to increase dramatically. The number of mutations jumped to 653 by generation 40,000, but researchers surmise that most of the late-evolving mutations were not helpful to the bacteria.</p>
<p>Gene mutations involved in human DNA replication are involved in some cancers. Many of the patterns observed in the experiment also occur in certain microbial infections, &#8220;and cancer progression is a fundamentally similar evolutionary process,&#8221; observed collaborator Jeffrey Barrick. &#8220;So what we learn here can help us better understand the course of these diseases.&#8221;</p>
<p>Barrick, a postdoctoral researcher in MSU&#8217;s Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, developed computational tools to discover and validate often complex mutations. &#8220;We know an astounding amount about the details of evolution in these little Erlenmeyer flasks,&#8221; he said.</p>
<p>The <em>Nature</em> paper involved collaboration with scientists from South Korea as well as France and MSU. The research, said genomics team leader Jihyun Kim of the Korea Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology, &#8220;is not only useful in understanding the tempo and mode of evolution, but can serve as a nice framework for practical applications in biotechnology, such as improving the performance or productivity of an industrial strain.&#8221;</p>
<p>Thousands of generations later, the MSU experiment continues to evolve. &#8220;Like a lot of science, our study answers some questions but raises many others,&#8221; Lenski said.</p>
<p>The research has been supported by the National Science Foundation and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.</p>

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