Science News - Reductive evolution study
Sometimes less may be more and simplicity could enable ubiquity, for example, such as in the case of the evolutionary process of budding yeasts which can be found in every corner of the world. Proposed by Charles Darwin in 1859 in his book On the Origins of Species, the theory of evolution explained how through time natural adaptations of traits occur in organisms to benefit their survival in their ecosystems. Evolution is a scientific marvel and continuous research to support and understand this theory currently takes place. One such biologist, Antonias Rokas of Vanderbilt University along with colleagues recently conducted a study that analyzed the evolutionary ancestry for differing species of yeast and found that losses of traits were a part of their evolution. These findings aid in the argument for reductive evolution and extend our knowledge and understanding of how and why species evolve. The conclusions also suggest room for further study especially in concerns among evolutionary dynamics favoring generalist lineages over specialists. More simply put that more simplicity in some organisms may be favorable in long-term species survival.
Published on Cell Press in November of 2018, the study that used resources from the Advanced Computing Center for Research and Education at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, TN, along with other partnerships from the University of Washington, assessed over 300 different budding yeast species. Funding was provided in part, by the National Science Foundation and the DOE Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center. The research used Budding Yeasts of the subphylum Saccharomycotina which are unicellular fungi that have constantly evolved and are of a diverse group that can be found successfully growing all across different ecosystems. They sampled the genomes of 332 budding yeast species, around 200 of which were newly sequenced at the Genome Network Analysis Support Facility, RIKEN Center for Life Science Technologies in Yokohama, Japan. They then compiled and analyzed data to establish a geological timeline of budding yeast diversification.
By quantifying Horizontal Gene Transfer (the movement of genetic material between organisms not through reproduction) through looking at proposed transfers they were able to track genome lineages and networks. They then inferred individual gene trees and traced the evolution of 45 metabolic traits along with their underlying genetic toolkit which was linked to the over 400 million-year-old budding yeast common ancestor (BYCA). This common ancestor was inferred to be metabolically complex, while throughout time the evolution across the subphylum has led to a decrease in the complexity of current species due to the loss of traits. Supported with the results of the apparent low levels of Horizontal Gene Transfer, we are able to see this trend of budding yeasts going through an evolution of adaptation which causes loss of traits. This is the discussion as presented in the journal, and outlines why the study’s implications are that of which support and conclude a display of reductive evolution the process by which microorganisms remove genes from their genome in the process of evolutionary diversification.
In an interview with Antonias Rokas when asked why they did this while pointing to the pure research-based aspect of conducting the study, he also answered, “part of it is, the application is if we understand the diversity of the metabolism, we might understand . . . how to make biofuels.” So not only is the evolution of life and its processes valuable in the comprehension of biology, but this evolution of knowledge found through scientific advancements is crucial in our uncovering and reshaping of nature. These new discoveries as a result of this study present avenues for further research while also giving clues to how survival doesn’t always mean having more which could have applications in how we move forward with tracing species’ histories.
References
Shen, X. X., Opulente, D. A., Kominek, J., Zhou, X., Steenwyk, J. L., Buh, K. V., ... &
Boudouris, J. T. (2018). Tempo and mode of genome evolution in the budding yeast subphylum. Cell, 175(6), 1533-1545.
Than, K. (2018, February 27). What is Darwin's Theory of Evolution? Retrieved from
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