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HUMAN GUT ON ANTIBIOTICS. "Changes to the highly co-evolved microbial community architecture lead to changes in resource availability and species-species interactions, opening niches available for pathogenic intrusion and leading to the loss of colonization resistance. Antibiotics also select for antibiotic-resistant community members, enriching the presence of resistance genes in the microbiome." http://www.jci.org/articles/view/72333 View in LinkedIn

TWO PHASES OF EVOLUTION. "These and many other cases of reductive evolution are consistent with a general model composed of two distinct evolutionary phases: the short, explosive, innovation phase that leads to an abrupt increase in genome complexity, followed by a much longer reductive phase, which encompasses either a neutral ratchet of genetic material loss or adaptive genome streamlining." https://lnkd.in/egqWFZp View in LinkedIn

EXCESSIVE USE. "Antibiotic resistance genes are ubiquitous in present day natural environments. In part, this reflects the widespread human use of large quantities of antibiotics over the past 70 years and the strong selective pressures this use has exerted, including the dissemination of resistant organisms. However, the resistance genes themselves are ancient." View in LinkedIn

FIRST TENDENCIES. "There are effectively irrefutable arguments for a genuine increase in complexity during evolution. Indeed, the successive emergence of higher grades of complexity throughout the history of life is impossible to ignore." https://lnkd.in/egqWFZp View in LinkedIn

ANTIBIOTICS "have been found to alter the taxonomic, genomic, and functional capacity of the human gut microbiota, with effects that are rapid and sometimes persistent. Broad-spectrum antibiotics reduce bacterial diversity while expanding and collapsing membership of specific indigenous taxa." Gut microbiota diversity is key for health. https://lnkd.in/eusKgr4 View in LinkedIn

REDUCTIVE EVOLUTION. "The mitochondria, the ubiquitous energy-transforming organelles of eukaryotes, and the chloroplasts, the organelles responsible for the eukaryotic photosynthesis, are the ultimate realizations of bacterial reductive evolution. However, such reductive evolution, its paramount importance for eukaryotes notwithstanding, was considered to represent a highly specialized trend in the history of life." https://lnkd.in/egqWFZp View in LinkedIn

PLETHORA OF REASONS FOR CAUTION. "Antibiotic treatment selects for resistant bacteria, increases opportunities for horizontal gene transfer, and enables intrusion of pathogenic organisms through depletion of occupied natural niches, with profound implications for the emergence of resistance." https://lnkd.in/eusKgr4 View in LinkedIn

VAST GENE LOSSES. "It has been well known for decades that the evolution of numerous parasitic and symbiotic organisms entails simplification rather than complexification. In particular, bacteria that evolve from free-living forms to obligate intracellular parasites can lose up to 95% of their gene repertoires without compromising the ancestral set of highly conserved genes involved in core cellular functions." https://lnkd.in/egqWFZp View in LinkedIn

EVOLUTION AS COMPLEXITY ACCUMULATION. "Recent evolutionary reconstructions challenge this notion. Two notable examples are the reconstruction of the complex archaeal ancestor and the intron-rich ancestor of eukaryotes. In both cases, evolution in most of the lineages was apparently dominated by extensive loss of genes and introns, respectively." https://lnkd.in/egqWFZp View in LinkedIn

DAVID ATTENBOROUGH. "We are a plague on the Earth...Either we limit our population growth or the natural world will do it for us, and the natural world is doing it for us right now." http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/earth/earthnews/9815862/Humans-are-plague-on-Earth-Attenborough.html View in LinkedIn