Multicellular Life Evolves in Laboratory

[Jim__]

An evolutionary transition that took several billion years to occur in nature has happened in a laboratory, and it needed just 60 days.

Under artificial pressure to become larger, single-celled yeast became multicellular creatures. That crucial step is responsible for life’s progression beyond algae and bacteria, and while the latest work doesn’t duplicate prehistoric transitions, it could help reveal the principles guiding them.

“This is actually simple. It doesn’t need mystical complexity or a lot of the things that people have hypothesized — special genes, a huge genome, very unnatural conditions,” said evolutionary biologist Michael Travisano of the University of Minnesota, co author of a study Jan. 17 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

In the new study, researchers led by Travisano and William Ratcliff grew brewer’s yeast, a common single-celled organism, in flasks of nutrient-rich broth.

Once per day they shook the flasks, removed yeast that most rapidly settled to the bottom, and used it to start new cultures. Free-floating yeast were left behind, while yeast that gathered in heavy, fast-falling clumps survived to reproduce.

more ...

[ret5hd]

1. ahhhh...may e like in waves...

i wonder where waves occur naturally???

[phantom power]

2. I have a question about yeast

Is (single celled) yeast a thing that evolved from older multicellular fungi? The reason I ask is because if that were true, what we could be seeing here is re-enabling of "dead" code for multicellularity that was latent in the genome.

Either way, it's a hell of a result.

[Odin2005]

6. Yes, yeast is descended from ascomycete molds.

[krispos42]

3. Correction:

You're documenting the hand of Satan at work misleading the faithful!

[MarkCharles]

4. In all of this, there was no god invited into the laboratory!

It happened on its own.

What blasphemous single celled plants and animals!

[tama]

8. On it's own?

As if the ID Hand of God of the lab rats shaking vials had nothing to do with results?

[ret5hd]

5. so, did they make any beer yet?

[phantom power]

7. yes, but you can only drink it in this multicellular beer stein:

http://www.cafepress.co.uk/+multicellular_microorganism_stein,36512315