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Related Concept Videos

Migration00:53

Migration

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Migration is long-range, seasonal movement from one region or habitat to another. This common strategy, carried out by many different organisms around the world, is an adaptive response that typically corresponds to changes in an organism’s environment, like resource availability or climate. Migrations can involve huge groups of thousands of animals as well as single individuals traveling alone and can range from thousands of kilometers to just a few hundred meters.
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Natural Selection and Adaptation01:15

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Natural selection, a fundamental concept in evolutionary biology, is the mechanism by which evolution is driven, favoring organisms that are best adapted to their environments. This process enhances their chances of survival and reproduction. Adaptation, a key outcome of this process, involves genetic modifications that optimize an organism's functionality under specific environmental challenges, such as extreme cold or thinner air at high altitudes.
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Natural selection—probably the most well-known evolutionary mechanism—increases the prevalence of traits that enhance survival and reproduction. However, evolution does not merely propagate favorable traits, nor does it always benefit populations.
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Cell migration is a process by which the cells move from one location to another, playing an essential role in embryological development, repair and regeneration, immune response, and metastasis. Cells migrate in response to chemical or mechanical signals generated by specific organs or tissues. The overall mechanism includes three steps - polarization, protrusion, and release. Polarization involves the formation of a distinct cell front and rear, which determines the direction of movement.
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Natural selection is an evolutionary process in which individuals with survival-promoting traits reproduce at higher rates. These favorable traits become more common within a population or species. Naturally selected traits initially arise via random genetic mutations. In order for selection to occur, there must be variation within a population, the trait controlling the variation must be heritable, and there must be an evolutionary advantage for variation in the trait.
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Related Experiment Video

Updated: May 27, 2025

Traction Microscopy Integrated with Microfluidics for Chemotactic Collective Migration
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Nongenetic adaptation by collective migration.

Lam Vo1,2, Fotios Avgidis1,2,3, Henry H Mattingly4

  • 1Department of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06511.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
|February 19, 2025
PubMed
Summary

Bacterial populations rapidly adapt to new environments by collectively migrating and favoring high-performing swimming cells. This dynamic adaptation occurs without genetic changes, showcasing a flexible strategy for survival.

Keywords:
bacterial chemotaxiscollective behaviormicrobial ecologynon-genetic diversitypopulation-level adaptation

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Area of Science:

  • Microbiology
  • Evolutionary Biology
  • Systems Biology

Background:

  • Cell populations need to adapt to environmental changes for survival.
  • Adaptation can occur through gene regulation or genetic mutations.
  • Bacterial populations exhibit diverse phenotypes, including varying swimming behaviors.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate how migrating bacterial populations regulate their phenotypic distribution to adapt to diverse environments.
  • To understand the mechanisms underlying rapid phenotypic adaptation in migrating bacterial populations.
  • To determine if adaptation involves genetic changes or phenotypic selection.

Main Methods:

  • Generated isogenic Escherichia coli populations with varied swimming behaviors.
  • Observed phenotype distributions during migration in liquid and porous environments.
  • Measured chemoreceptor abundance distributions during chemotaxis.

Main Results:

  • Migrating populations enriched with high-performing swimming phenotypes in different environments.
  • Adaptation occurred rapidly without mutations or gene regulation, and reversed upon cessation of migration.
  • Adaptation affected multiple chemotaxis-related traits simultaneously.
  • A balance between cell growth and collective migration drives adaptation.

Conclusions:

  • Collective migration enables rapid and flexible adaptation of phenotypic composition in bacterial populations.
  • Phenotypic selection during migration is a key mechanism for adapting to environmental conditions.
  • This mechanism allows populations with continuous, multidimensional phenotypes to adapt without genetic changes.