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Multicellular Life Evolves in Laboratory
- polemic 15y agoPhysics might be pure, but Biology is fking amazing. Makes me ponder my own place in the scheme of things - made up of many multicellular components, myself a component of a society, itself one of many that make up the Human species, one of many that form the ecology of this planet
- sterling312 15y agoOne might say that it's a super computer. What's the question again?
- dangrossman 15y ago> Is the universe actually a giant quantum computer? According to Seth Lloyd—Professor of Quantum-Mechanical Engineering at MIT and originator of the first technologically feasible design for a working quantum computer—the answer is yes http://www.amazon.com/Programming-Universe-Quantum-Computer-Scientist/dp/1400040922 http://www.amazon.com/Programming-Universe-Quantum-Computer-...
- charlieflowers 15y agoI think it was "How many roads must a man walk down?", wasn't it?
- learc83 15y agoWas this completely new, or was it some sort of latent ability that was brought out by environmental conditioning?
- ars 15y agoIt was a latent ability. Some yeast already has the ability to make multi cellular colonies. When this was first published (on June 23 - not sure why it's back in the news) there was a section of criticism saying they should have used an organism without that ability. But I don't see this section in the wired article. For example: http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/80beats/2011/06/23/yeast-can-evolve-into-multicellular-organisms-in-a-few-short-months/ http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/80beats/2011/06/23/yeast-c... http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/331789/title/Multicellular_life_arises_in_a_test_tube http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/331789/title/Mult...
- snippyhollow 15y agoIt is back on the news because: “Experimental evolution of multicellularity.” By William C. Ratcliff, R. Ford Denison, Mark Borrello, and Michael Travisano. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Jan. 17, 2012.
- tylerritchie 15y ago>... not sure why it's back in the news ... The paper [1] was just published, the first round in the news was due to the presentation of their findings, but not the publishing of any papers (as near as I can tell). Thankfully it's an open-access article. [1] http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1115323109 http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1115323109
- lusr 15y agoI didn't quite know how to interpret "latent ability". Reading the article, apparently yeast used to be multicellular, which is a pretty valid criticism of this experiment having meaningful results in terms of how single-celled organisms evolved into multicelluar organisms.
- padobson 15y agoThis comment seems to assume that evolution can only go in one direction - from simple forms of life to more complex ones. If a complex form of life evolves to become simpler and then evolves again to become more complex, then there's just as much to be learned from following a line of evolution that increases complexity.
- lusr 15y agoYou are absolutely correct, and it's a comment I anticipated, which is why I qualified my original statement: "meaningful results _in terms of_ how single-celled organisms evolved into multicelluar organisms". (Although in fairness, it probably gives a hint and will certainly lead to future experiments that may provide the beginnings of an answer.)
- ars 15y ago
- nickpinkston 15y agoI know this type of Amoeba had a "slug" state that it can form - so it's possible for sure the similar genes are there already too. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dictyostelid http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dictyostelid
- toppy 15y agoIs it "muliticellular life" or "multicellular" life (i.e. group of independent yeasts actually)?
- adimitrov 15y agoThe article actually says that some cells forfeit the ability to procreate, and there is true division of labor among them.
- tintin 15y agoIf it was so simple to do in 60 days I wonder why they don't question the several billion years.
- Sandman 15y agoWhat do you mean? Obviously, multicellular life forms did evolve in those several billion years.
- tintin 15y agoFrom the article: "An evolutionary transition that took several billion years to occur in nature has happened in a laboratory, and it needed just 60 days." When these transitions only took 60 days, why not take another look at the 'several billion years'? Maybe life did form much faster under certain conditions.
- Sandman 15y agoAh. Sorry, I didn't quite understand you the first time. Maybe life did form much faster under certain conditions. You mean multicellular life here, obviously. Yeah, as the experiment shows, it probably did form fast under the right conditions. It's all about genes. If being a part of a multicellular organism allows one cell's genes to spread more rapidly, than that cell is going to have an incentive to be in a group.
- radarsat1 15y agoThis is wonderful. It is so simple, and takes a short enough amount of time, that it would make a fantastic lab experiment for high school students. Every day, remove the heaviest yeast and place it in a new environment and feed it. After 2 months, see that the yeast has formed into a larger organism. If this is highly repeatable, it could have a great role for science education.
- gldalmaso 15y agoAn honest question: aren't there potentially dangerous repercussions in breeding multicelular organisms like that? Could an innofensive organism become dangerous for us if it suddenly became more efficient and specialized?