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Related Concept Videos

The Evidence for Evolution02:55

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Genetic variations accumulating within populations over generations give rise to biological evolution. Evolutionary changes can result in the formation of novel varieties and entire new species. These changes are responsible for the diverse forms of life inhabiting the planet. The evidence for evolution suggests that all living organisms descended from common ancestors.
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While every living organism has a genome of some kind (be it RNA, or DNA), there is considerable variation in the sizes of these blueprints. One major factor that impacts genome size is whether the organism is prokaryotic or eukaryotic. In prokaryotes, the genome contains little to no non-coding sequence, such that genes are tightly clustered in groups or operons sequentially along the chromosome. Conversely, the genes in eukaryotes are punctuated by long stretches of non-coding sequence.
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Genome comparison is one of the excellent ways to interpret the evolutionary relationships between organisms. The basic principle of genome comparison is that if two species share a common feature, it is likely encoded by the DNA sequence conserved between both species. The advent of genome sequencing technologies in the late 20th century enabled scientists to understand the concept of conservation of domains between species and helped them to deduce evolutionary relationships across diverse...
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The genomes of eukaryotes are punctuated by long stretches of sequence which do not code for proteins or RNAs. Although some of these regions do contain crucial regulatory sequences, the vast majority of this DNA serves no known function. Typically, these regions of the genome are the ones in which the fastest change, in evolutionary terms, is observed, because there is typically little to no selection pressure acting on these regions to preserve their sequences.
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Related Experiment Video

Updated: May 26, 2025

Microbial Communities in Nature and Laboratory - Interview
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Microbial Communities in Nature and Laboratory - Interview

Published on: May 28, 2007

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Can a microbial community become an evolutionary individual?

Afra Salazar1, Sara Mitri1

  • 1Department of Fundamental Microbiology, University of Lausanne, Lausanne 1015, Switzerland.

Current Opinion in Microbiology
|February 21, 2025
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Microbial communities are not evolutionary individuals, hindering community breeding. Enhancing their individuality through positive interactions, functional integration, and entrenchment can improve directed evolution strategies.

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Area of Science:

  • Microbial ecology
  • Evolutionary biology
  • Synthetic biology

Background:

  • Microbial communities underpin essential ecosystem services, motivating efforts to engineer them for specific functions.
  • Current methods like community breeding show limited success due to a lack of heritable variation in microbial communities, which do not reliably act as evolutionary individuals.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To explore the concept of evolutionary transitions in individuality.
  • To define and characterize the individuality of multispecies microbial communities.
  • To propose a framework for enhancing microbial community individuality to improve community breeding strategies.

Main Methods:

  • Literature review on evolutionary transitions in individuality.
  • Development of a multidimensional individuality space based on ecological traits: positive interactions, functional integration, and entrenchment.
  • Analysis of microbial communities within this individuality space.

Main Results:

  • Microbial communities were characterized within a multidimensional individuality space defined by three key ecological traits.
  • The study identified pathways for directing microbial communities toward increased individuality.
  • A conceptual framework was established to guide the engineering of microbial communities.

Conclusions:

  • Microbial communities require enhanced individuality to effectively utilize evolutionary approaches like community breeding.
  • The proposed individuality framework offers a novel perspective for improving the design and control of microbial communities for desired functions.