Tag: evolution

Evolution is often a necessary step in metabolic engineering research seeking to implement a new pathway into a species

February 6, 2024

Desire to optimise endogenous cellular metabolism or to prod a microbe to use a new unconventional substrate often requires the implementation of new metabolic pathway in a microbial chassis. While this can be done through a combination of gene overexpression and deletions, the new metabolic pathway often only allows slow growth for the species. This … More Evolution is often a necessary step in metabolic engineering research seeking to implement a new pathway into a species

Neanderthal likely have a different diet from humans based on mitochondrial DNA phylogeny and single nucleotide polymorphism pattern

November 2, 2023

Mitochondria in humans comprise a genome with genes important to metabolism and maintaining redox balance. Thus, evolution of these genes is responsive to nutritional and environmental factors, and the evolution rate may be rapid depending on the strength of the selective force. If there is a significant difference in nutrition, there will be a strong … More Neanderthal likely have a different diet from humans based on mitochondrial DNA phylogeny and single nucleotide polymorphism pattern

Antimicrobial tolerance emerges prior to antibiotic resistance

June 19, 2021

Resistance to many frontline antibiotics is a problem of important concern to the global medical community. Antibiotic resistance refers to the minimum inhibitory concentration at which a microbe could not grow in a medium spiked with the antibiotic. Various mechanisms such as expression of efflux pumps and mutations to targets of antibiotics could account for … More Antimicrobial tolerance emerges prior to antibiotic resistance

Reasons underpinning the evolution of biosynthetic gene clusters with concatenated genes in fungal genome

January 15, 2021

Biosynthetic gene clusters in fungus resemble those in bacterial species, particularly in the concatenation of multiple genes into a cluster similar in gene organization structure as an operon in bacterial cells. However, such gene organization is not common in eukaryotes where genes belonging to a metabolic pathway could be on different chromosomes. What drove the … More Reasons underpinning the evolution of biosynthetic gene clusters with concatenated genes in fungal genome

RNA viruses evolve more rapidly than DNA viruses

November 20, 2020

Viruses can generally be classified as DNA and RNA viruses, which differ in their genetic makeup. During infection, DNA viruses inject DNA into the host cells, which is transcribed to mRNA for downstream protein translation. On the other hand, RNA viruses inject RNA into host cells, which must be reverse-transcribed into DNA, prior to transcription … More RNA viruses evolve more rapidly than DNA viruses

Mutagenic source is needed to drive evolution experiment

September 28, 2020

Evolution is a common tool for developing new microbial strains able to perform new functions or existing functions more efficiently. But, what is the source of information for which evolution and natural selection is able to act upon? The answer is mutations. Without mutations and the diversity it engenders, natural selection would not be able … More Mutagenic source is needed to drive evolution experiment

What is the significance of ability to grow in minimal medium?

January 13, 2020

Most microbes require input of vitamins and growth factors to grow and multiply; thus, they require chemically undefined complex medium for growth. However, there exists microorganisms able to grow in minimal salts medium which are devoid of vitamins and growth factors. Thus, what is the significance of growth in minimal medium? Is it an evolutionary … More What is the significance of ability to grow in minimal medium?

Evolution experiments could traverse wrong segments of the fitness landscape

August 10, 2019

Evolving a microbial species towards higher fitness for a particular function requires appropriate selection forces for screening the multitude of mutations generated in the system. In fact, appropriate choice of selection forces play an important role in determining the success of the evolution experiment. However, appropriate use of selection forces does not guarantee success of … More Evolution experiments could traverse wrong segments of the fitness landscape

Degeneracy in protein sequence meant that evolutionary conservation occurred at the structure level

December 12, 2017

Given the importance of many proteins to the maintenance of cellular processes, the structures of the proteins are highly conserved independent of the sequence information at the amino acid and nucleotide level. This raises an important question in evolutionary biology: the direction in which natural selection exerts its effect in selecting for specific information bits … More Degeneracy in protein sequence meant that evolutionary conservation occurred at the structure level

Endosymbiosis may have occurred more than once

December 5, 2017

Multiple theories exist to explain the occurrence of endosymbiosis, which is the leading theory outlining the sequence of events that led to the formation of modern cells. Specifically, modern cells are ancestral prokaryotic cells nestled within an eukaryotic host cell. For example, mitochondrion in cells have been identified as ancestral prokaryotic cells that evolved into … More Endosymbiosis may have occurred more than once