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RAPID AND DYNAMIC. “Because the dynamic microbial niche is redefined after every horizontal gene transfer, lineage separation would occur if the populations exploring two newly derived niches were both successful. Surveys among closely related bacterial species support the hypothesis that the differences between them arose primarily by gene loss and gene acquisition, not by mutational processes.” https://lnkd.in/djKBnru View in LinkedIn

BRITISH ECCENTRICS. “Around half of U.K. homes feed birds in their gardens. And the U.K. spends twice as much on birdseed than the whole of continental Europe.” https://lnkd.in/ghWux7x View in LinkedIn

REDEFINING EVENT. “The microbial niche can be considered a dynamic domain, which is redefined after each gene transfer event. This alternation of niche boundaries then imposes a different filter on the influx of foreign DNA, imparting different selective values on incoming genes.” https://lnkd.in/djKBnru View in LinkedIn

DYNAMIC NICHES. “Because gene acquisitions can increase the metabolic repertoire of the cell, we need not view the microbial niche as a static domain, within which fitter variants constantly arise and sweep through the population. Although an organism may evolve to improve its fitness within its current niche, it is more likely that gene acquisition will allow exploitation of a related environment.” https://lnkd.in/djKBnru View in LinkedIn

SLOW ROAD. “In contrast, variation introduced by point mutation will, most of the time, only adjust preexisting phenotypes.” https://lnkd.in/djKBnru View in LinkedIn

BOLT-ON GENE SETS. “Horizontal gene transfer can fundamentally alter the character of a microbial species by introducing fully functional genes and gene clusters that can confer complex phenotypes and functions that allow effective and competitive exploitation of new niches.” https://lnkd.in/djKBnru View in LinkedIn

EXTREME INNOVATION. “Even more radically inventive solutions can be expected when organisms have access to a rich variety of ready-made genes and gene complexes, as they do in real environments.” https://lnkd.in/djKBnru View in LinkedIn

SO ENDS this first weekend fragment on the interesting recent observations of adaptation occurring in just a dozen generations rather than hundreds of thousands of years, as we have assumed. This rapid evolution is widespread. It is often triggered by human activity. The studies on blue tits have correlated the beak changes to gene changes and tied the bow on this interesting phenomenon. View in LinkedIn

ADDING NOT REPLACING “Although we have presented the new view as if it were antithetical to traditional understandings of prokaryotic evolution, in the long run we endorse a synthesis that will acknowledge gene exchange and clonality, weblike and treelike behavior, and adaptation and the evolution of new function by many modes.” https://lnkd.in/djKBnru View in LinkedIn

THE PROKARYOTIC WORLD. “Embracing gene transfer promises a broad and radical revision of the prokaryotic evolutionary paradigm. This will come from a fusion of population genetics, molecular genetics, epidemiological and environmental genomics, microbial ecology, and molecular phylogeny, fields that have developed mostly in isolation from each other.” https://lnkd.in/djKBnru View in LinkedIn