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PLAUSIBLE IDEA. "However, if the unicellular organisms have the ability to recognize their kin, or simply tend to live in close proximity of each other, then this argument is no longer valid: One can easily envision that a unicellular organism could kill itself for the better good of its neighboring relatives, thus furthering the survival and multiplication of its own genes." https://lnkd.in/dVeZ2yE View in LinkedIn

DEATH AS A SIDE-EFFECT? "We must ask of unicellular organisms the same question we asked about multicellular organisms: Is death the function of POD, or merely a side effect? Multicellular organisms undergoing POD typically do leave offspring, so active death that is a byproduct of mechanisms “designed” to regulate investment in reproduction is a viable (and often supported) hypothesis for multicellular POD." (POD = programmed organismal death). http://www.esciencecentral.org/journals/are-internal-death-promoting-mechanisms-ever-adaptive-2329-9002.1000113.pdf View in LinkedIn

IMPLAUSIBLE IDEA. "It has been argued that for unicellular organisms, there would a priori appear to be no need for such a program, as cell death basically translates into organismal death and therefore would confer no evolutionary advantage (dead organisms do not procreate)." https://lnkd.in/dVeZ2yE View in LinkedIn

REF FOR TODAY’S POST. Are Internal, Death-Promoting Mechanisms Ever Adaptive?" "John W Pepper, Deborah E Shelton, Armin Rashidi and Pierre M Durand" "Journal of Phylogenetics & Evolutionary Biology View in LinkedIn

DEPTH AND DEFINITIONS. "How far “down” the evolutionary ladder one can expect programmed cell death to exist depends on how one defines the phenomenon." https://lnkd.in/dVeZ2yE View in LinkedIn

WO BACTERIOPHAGE VIRUSES IN WOLBACHIA. "Screening of Wolbachia infections from a variety of invertebrate hosts indicate that prophage WO (named after Wolbachia) is widespread in the genus." https://lnkd.in/dG3vir9 View in LinkedIn

FRAGMENT FROM NATURE concludes this weekend on the Wolbachia theme which reveals unusual gene transfers during parasitism. Parasitism has long been likened to an arms race, although like everything else in Nature, there is a broad Bell curve. Between the Wolbachia bacteria, the bacteriophage WO virus that preys on the Wolbachia bacteria, and the eukaryotic host, there is shown to be liberal gene exchange, enriching the adaptive toolbox. More than likely, this is far from an isolated case. https://lnkd.in/dZe2vg8 View in LinkedIn

GENE OWNERSHIP. "Plasmids and bacteriophages may induce cell death in the host (or non-host daughter) cell. Whether or not this is considered an example of programmed organismal death, of course, hinges on whether or not selfish genetic elements are considered part of the organismal genome. The benefits in this case are straightforward and focused on the level of the selfish genetic element." View in LinkedIn

PARADOXICAL POISON AND ANTIDOTE. "In prokaryotes, conjugative plasmids often encode for the simultaneous production of long-lived toxins and short-lived antitoxins. When these are present together, the toxin is harmless to the host. However, if one daughter cell is cured of the plasmid, it will inherit toxic cytoplasm without a source of antitoxin and will die. While this is easily explained as a ‘selfish’ adaptation on the part of the plasmid, chromosomally-encoded toxin-antitoxin systems probably do not function in gene-level competition." https://www.linkedin.com/redir/general-malware-page?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2eesciencecentral%2eorg%2Fjournals%2Fare-internal-death-promoting-mechanisms-ever-adaptive-2329-9002%2e1000113%2epdf View in LinkedIn

SELFISH MOBILE GENETIC ELEMENTS. "In some cases, this peculiar form of selection may explain the function and evolution of genes for unicell POD. When a cell has low chances for reproduction, POD and the transfer of genes from the dying cell to a new host can save the genes. This process may be associated with occurrence of new mutations in the transferred genes and their improved ability to survive in the new host." (POD = programmed organismal death). View in LinkedIn