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QUANDARY. "Although it is possible that a control population could evolve multicellularity in a few months, this would be an unexpected outcome given that hundreds of independent lineages in the genus Chlamydomonas (including C. reinhardtii) have failed to do so over hundreds of millions of years." https://lnkd.in/dU8HRX5 View in LinkedIn

DIVERSIFIED OPTIONS. "The reasoning is straightforward: epigenetic factors permit a single cell line with a given genotype to express many different phenotypes on which natural selection might act, thereby providing a competitive advantage through diversification." https://lnkd.in/dTS7dFy View in LinkedIn

CITRATE EXAMPLE. "An excellent example is the evolution of citrate catabolism in E. coli (a highly beneficial trait) in 1 out of 12 experimental populations after 31,500 generations of evolution in citrate-containing medium. No citrate utilization occurred in the other 11 populations, even after 8,000 further generations of selection. Even though E. coli was unlikely to evolve the ability to use citrate, this selection experiment clearly shows that the possibility existed." https://lnkd.in/dU8HRX5 View in LinkedIn

INFORMATION IS SELECTIVE ADVANTAGE. "Such a vast jump in the potential information content of single cells is believed to have led to a dramatic selective advantage in unicellular populations capable of epigenetic regulation and inheritance." https://lnkd.in/dTS7dFy View in LinkedIn

NOT RARE IN LAB SETTINGS. "Despite strong selection, substantial evolutionary responses to selection occurred in just 1 of 10 populations under settling selection within 219 days. Surprisingly, unique major adaptive responses to selection are not uncommon in experimental evolution." https://lnkd.in/dU8HRX5 View in LinkedIn

EXPONENTIAL INCREASE IN INFORMATION. "An example is the origin of epigenetic regulation, whereby heritable states of gene activation lead to a potentially exponential increase in the amount of information that may be transmitted from generation to generation (since a set of N genes, existing in two states - on or off - via epigenetic rearrangements, can have 2N distinct states)." https://lnkd.in/dTS7dFy View in LinkedIn

INFORMATION CHANGES. "Szathmáry and Maynard Smith have suggested that all major evolutionary transitions involve changes in the way information is stored and transmitted." https://lnkd.in/dTS7dFy View in LinkedIn

ONE ANCESTRAL TREE. "The monophyletic origin of orb webs is strongly supported, despite conspicuous differences in the silk used to spin different types of orbs." https://lnkd.in/db9PJGx View in LinkedIn

TOUGHEST MATERIAL. "Spiders produce multiple silk types, from discrete abdominal glands, that exhibit remarkable strength and elasticity surpassing most natural and artificial fibres, and they are unmatched in toughness." https://lnkd.in/dHWBg9g View in LinkedIn

"NATURAL MATERIALS are renowned for exquisite designs that optimize function, as illustrated by the elasticity of blood vessels, the toughness of bone and the protection offered by nacre. Particularly intriguing are spider silks, with studies having explored properties ranging from their protein sequence to the geometry of a web. This material system, highly adapted to meet a spider’s many needs, has superior mechanical properties." https://lnkd.in/dTx-Ej8 View in LinkedIn