New Lab Student: "My my. These guys are complete pigs. I'll show 'em, I'll get all these dishes spotless. Bet I get an "A".
Posted on 07/11/2012 1:21:48 PM PDT by Red Badger
It's a project 500 million years in the making. Only this time, instead of playing on a movie screen in Jurassic Park, it's happening in a lab at the Georgia Institute of Technology.
Using a process called paleo-experimental evolution, Georgia Tech researchers have resurrected a 500-million-year-old gene from bacteria and inserted it into modern-day Escherichia coli(E. coli) bacteria. This bacterium has now been growing for more than 1,000 generations, giving the scientists a front row seat to observe evolution in action.
"This is as close as we can get to rewinding and replaying the molecular tape of life," said scientist Betül Kaçar, a NASA astrobiology postdoctoral fellow in Georgia Tech's NASA Center for Ribosomal Origins and Evolution. "The ability to observe an ancient gene in a modern organism as it evolves within a modern cell allows us to see whether the evolutionary trajectory once taken will repeat itself or whether a life will adapt following a different path."
In 2008, Kaçar's postdoctoral advisor, Associate Professor of Biology Eric Gaucher, successfully determined the ancient genetic sequence of Elongation Factor-Tu (EF-Tu), an essential protein in E. coli. EFs are one of the most abundant proteins in bacteria, found in all known cellular life and required for bacteria to survive. That vital role made it a perfect protein for the scientists to answer questions about evolution.
After achieving the difficult task of placing the ancient gene in the correct chromosomal order and position in place of the modern gene within E. coli, Kaçar produced eight identical bacterial strains and allowed "ancient life" to re-evolve. This chimeric bacteria composed of both modern and ancient genes survived, but grew about two times slower than its counterpart composed of only modern genes.
"The altered organism wasn't as healthy or fit as its modern-day version, at least initially," said Gaucher, "and this created a perfect scenario that would allow the altered organism to adapt and become more fit as it accumulated mutations with each passing day."
The growth rate eventually increased and, after the first 500 generations, the scientists sequenced the genomes of all eight lineages to determine how the bacteria adapted. Not only did the fitness levels increase to nearly modern-day levels, but also some of the altered lineages actually became healthier than their modern counterpart.
When the researchers looked closer, they noticed that every EF-Tu gene did not accumulate mutations. Instead, the modern proteins that interact with the ancient EF-Tu inside of the bacteria had mutated and these mutations were responsible for the rapid adaptation that increased the bacteria's fitness. In short, the ancient gene has not yet mutated to become more similar to its modern form, but rather, the bacteria found a new evolutionary trajectory to adapt.
These results were presented at the recent NASA International Astrobiology Science Conference. The scientists will continue to study new generations, waiting to see if the protein will follow its historical path or whether it will adopt via a novel path altogether.
"We think that this process will allow us to address several longstanding questions in evolutionary and molecular biology," said Kaçar. "Among them, we want to know if an organism's history limits its future and if evolution always leads to a single, defined point or whether evolution has multiple solutions to a given problem."
New Lab Student: "My my. These guys are complete pigs. I'll show 'em, I'll get all these dishes spotless. Bet I get an "A".
In 2008, Kaçar's postdoctoral advisor, Associate Professor of Biology Eric Gaucher, successfully determined the ancient genetic sequence of Elongation Factor-Tu (EF-Tu), an essential protein in E. coli. EFs are one of the most abundant proteins in bacteria, found in all known cellular life and required for bacteria to survive. That vital role made it a perfect protein for the scientists to answer questions about evolution.
Helpful Hint.
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Go Go Godzilla!
This is self-adverting and self-promotion by the scientists involved and the GIT institute. Whatever new process name they call it, this is not new.
The only exciting news is that the old gene coded protein is still recognizable, and performed with relatively similar function.
Consider the life span of an E. coli generation, in a lab optimal condition, they replicate in about 20 min, the mutation rate is much accerlerated and accumulated over the 500 million year span.
I had Industrial disease, but I cured it with T-Rex E. Coli.
Cue "Don't Fear The Reaper"
What could possibly go wrong?
why would you grow something in poop?
Ask a farmer. ;)
Yeah, it are !
I’m seeing in teh mid’s eye, a petri dish.
The dish sprouts a pseudopod which grabs a pen, then it shoves the pen into the ‘ear’ of the newly sprouted ‘pseudohead’ as it begins quoting Shakespear.
Fertilizer.................
Dr. Ian Malcolm: I’ll tell you the problem with the scientific power you’re using here: it didn’t require any discipline to attain it. You read what others had done, and you took the next step. You didn’t earn the knowledge for yourselves, so you don’t take any responsibility for it. You stood on the shoulders of geniuses to accomplish something as fast as you could, and before you even knew what you had, you, you’ve patented it, and packaged it, you’ve slapped it on a plastic lunchbox, and now
[pounds table with fists]
Dr. Ian Malcolm: you’re selling it.
[pounds table again]
Dr. Ian Malcolm: You want to sell it, well...
John Hammond: I don’t think you’re giving us our due credit. Our scientists have done things which nobody’s ever done before...
Dr. Ian Malcolm: Yeah, but your scientists were so preoccupied with whether they could that they didn’t stop to think if they should.
Considering it was Georgia Tech, it probably was a, “Hold muh flask and watch this!” moment...............
...as she rinses the stuff down the drain into the sewer lines................where it grows and mutates in this sudden new and rich environment, with no natural enemies to hamper its progress........and suddenly, people start disappearing in their own bathrooms while on the potty............the FBI is called in to investigate, but by that time entire towns start to de-populate...........small Georgia cities suddenly devoid of people....................
It’s time to go Scientologist on Mars and send bacteria life there to get started. By slowly creating Mars conditions in the lab we could evolve something that could thrive. Possibly Mars did just that to Earth before their SUV emissions destroyed all Martian life.
500 million year old gene...a little misleading. The gene was produced recently. It’s a best guess, based on today’s sequences, at what the sequence was 500 million years ago.
“altered lineages actually became healthier than their modern counterpart”
Oh goody. Who is funding this?
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