All Ecology & Evolution articles – Page 8
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Host-to-host microbe transmission impacts bacterial evolution in the gut
A new study uncovers a significant role for bacterial transmission across hosts in shaping the adaptive evolution of new strains that colonize gut microbiomes.
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Scientists reveal how microalgae cope with environmental challenges
A study has shed new light on the intricate relationship between competition, evolution, and ecological communities in microalgae.
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Multicellular life on Earth ‘didn’t arise as described in textbooks’
Oxygen didn’t catalyze the swift blossoming of Earth’s first multicellular organisms, a new study says, defying a 70-year-old assumption about what caused an explosion of oceanic fauna hundreds of millions of years ago.
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Artificial cells show that ‘life finds a way’
Scientists studying a synthetically constructed minimal cell that has been stripped of all but its essential genes have found it can evolve just as fast as a normal cell.
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Complex life descended from common Asgardian ancestor
Researchers analyzing the genomes of hundreds of different archaea have discovered that eukaryotes trace their roots to a common Asgard archaean ancestor.
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Mapping evolution of E. coli virulence factor offers refined drug target
Researchers have presented evidence that targeting the K1 capsule can be used as the basis of treatment, paving the way to prevent serious E. coli infections.
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Ancestral mitoviruses discovered in mycorrhizal fungi
A new group of mitochondrial viruses confined to the arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi Glomeromycotina may represent an ancestral lineage of mitoviruses.
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Prochlorococcus ancestors rafted out to sea on chitin particles
Scientists propose that ancestors of Prochlorococcus hitched a ride on passing exoskeleton particles, using the particles as rafts to venture further out to sea. These chitin rafts may have also provided essential nutrients, fueling and sustaining the microbes along their journey.
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Bacteria evolve antibiotic resistance quickly by rejigging pumps
Bacteria can rapidly evolve resistance to antibiotics by adapting special pumps to flush them out of their cells, according to new research from the Quadram Institute and University of East Anglia.
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African rhinos have retroviruses not found in their cousins
New research reveals that the genomes of African rhinos contain dozens of gammaretroviruses that are absent from the genomes of Asian rhino species, such as the Sumatran and Javan rhino, and the African black rhino has two related groups, one missing from the white rhinos.
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Yeast evolves into multicellular life in the lab
A fascinating long-term evolution experiment has seen model organism ’snowflake yeast’ adapt into multicellular individuals more than 20,000 times larger than their ancestor.
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Previously unknown intracellular electricity may power biology
Newly discovered electrical activity within cells could change the way researchers think about biological chemistry
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Cyanobacteria membrane proteins similar to animals’
A dynamin-like protein, namely SynDLP, has been identified in the genome of a cyanobacterium.
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Algae yield clues to how complex life developed
Researchers studying green algae in Swedish lakes have succeeded in identifying which environmental conditions promote multicellularity.
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Into the microverse: scientists deploy novel data-driven method to map microbial niches
The researchers analysed and quantified thousands of metagenomic data sets from different microbial samples from all over the world.
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Expedition to search out invisible life in Galápagos
An international research team led by the Netherlands Institute of Ecology (NIOO-KNAW) is to search for invisible life in the Galápagos Islands. The Galápagos Microbiome Project - a group of scientists from the Netherlands, Ecuador, Spain and Brazil - intends to probe the uniqueness and diversity of microbial life on ...
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Microbes bingeing on burned soil could return land to life after wildfires
Researchers have identified bacteria and fungi that not only survive but thrive during the first year after a wildfire, findings that could help bring land back to life after fires that are increasing in both size and severity. The Holy Fire burned more than 23,000 acres ...
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E coli strain may have evolved too far to be fit for lab purposes
A model organism used in laboratories for the past 100 years has evolved so extensively that it may no longer be fit for purpose, according to a new study.
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Flagellate study reveals how cells gain control over their bacterial symbionts
A research team has cast fresh light on how eukaryotic cells integated bacteria in the course of evolution to become organelles, thanks to a study of the single-celled flagellate Angomonas deanei, which contains a bacterium that was taken up relatively recently.
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Discovery of world’s oldest DNA breaks record by one million years
Microscopic fragments of environmental DNA dating back two million years has been found in Ice Age sediment in northern Greenland, opening a game-changing new chapter in the history of evolution.