Year: 2022

EMBEDDED IN MICROBIAL ECOSYSTEM. “Furthermore, it has long been known that every multicellular organism coexists with large prokaryotic ecosystems—microbiomes—that completely cover its surfaces, external and internal. Recent studies have shown that these associated microbiomes are not mere contamination, but instead have profound effects upon the function and fitness of the multicellular organism.” https://lnkd.in/ewnQ9Vg View in LinkedIn

HYBRID ORGANISMS. “We now know that all multicellular eukaryotes are actually functional composites, holobionts, composed of more prokaryotic cells than eukaryotic cells and expressing more prokaryotic genes than eukaryotic genes. A full understanding of the biology of “individual” eukaryotes will now depend on an understanding of their associated microbiomes.” https://standardsingenomics.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s40793-016-0180-8 View in LinkedIn

PEAR-SHAPED WORLD VIEW. “Applied to the biosphere, two genomoscope discoveries are fundamental: first, most of the world’s biodiversity occurs in the prokaryotic realm, the full nature of which was unsuspected before. Second, many “foundational” biological concepts—such as the objective reality of individual organisms—are inadequate to describe and explain this emerging new world.” https://lnkd.in/ewnQ9Vg View in LinkedIn

BACK TO BASICS. “The full incorporation of the prokaryotic realm into our understanding of the biosphere will enrich biology, but at the expense of our having to rethink and reconceptualize some of our most basic notions.” https://lnkd.in/ewnQ9Vg View in LinkedIn

Yes, bacon really is killing us. Where are our regulators in this mess? https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/mar/01/bacon-cancer-processed-meats-nitrates-nitrites-sausages?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other View in LinkedIn

FRAGMENT FROM NATURE continues from last weekend on the theme of surprisingly rapid evolution. The number of examples of adaptation in just generations is increasing. This speaks to enormous phenotypic plasticity, and may even give an insight into the subject of abrupt evolutionary jumps or saltations, a contentious subject. View in LinkedIn

TWO TIME SCALES. “Slobodkin (1961) formalized this perspective by arguing that ‘ecological time’ was the ten-or-so generation period over which a population might, on average, maintain a steady state. ‘Evolutionary time’, in contrast, was considered the approximately half-a-million-year period sufficient for evolutionary change to disrupt ecological steady states.” https://lnkd.in/dAmAVYa View in LinkedIn

RAPID EVOLUTION EXAMPLE. “House sparrows (Passer domesticus) introduced to North America diversified phenotypically as they colonized different habitats.” https://lnkd.in/dAmAVYa View in LinkedIn

RAPID EVOLUTION EXAMPLE. “House mice introduced to the Welsh island of Skokholm changed dramatically in skeletal measurements over only 70 years.” https://lnkd.in/dAmAVYa View in LinkedIn

RAPID EVOLUTION EXAMPLE. “The evolution in