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The Mutation Catalyst

Chris Kaplan
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Slow, gradual changes have been thought of as the standard rule of biological evolution and long term geological processes, but new research conducted at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies revealed a new force behind the evolution of DNA acting as a catalyst for change.

The study, published in mid-September in the journal of Science, reveals that an organism's epigenetic code can evolve faster than the core genetic code, filtering and influencing the course of the organism's evolution.

This "hidden" code was observed in the plant Arabidopsis thaliana linking DNA and the passing down of biological traits. Researches believe that what they have observed in this plant species will give new insights into the evolutionary leaps between species and the course of evolution that are not strictly subject to the genetical foundation.

According to Joseph Ecker, who led the research team, they "found that these plants have an epigenetic code that's more flexible and influential than we imagined… it's possible that we humans have a similar active epigenetic mechanism that controls our biological characteristics and gets passed down to our children." Though, as team member Robert Schmitz clarifies, "there is very little change between each generation… spontaneous epimutations do exist in populations and arise at a rate much higher than the DNA mutations rate, and at times they had a powerful influence over how certain genes were expressed."

Flexibility and diversity, those are two words that have been reshaping the evolutionary paradigm and the notion of survival of the fittest, finding that nature celebrates those agile enough to adapt to the changing systems of interconnectedness.

 

 

Image: "DNA String..." by 2edeveloperteam on Flickr courtesy of Creative Commons Licensing.

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Comments

cool!

Submitted by gushtunkinflupped on Tue, 12/06/2011 - 13:43.
reminds me of http://leftinthedark.org.uk/

We are evolving

Submitted by HotahAvanaco on Tue, 12/06/2011 - 19:37.
I was recently reading an article, i forget where, but it was saying that due to solar flares the C14 carbon, was changing to C7 before reaching earth, im pretty sure we have C7 in our dna and maybe we are now receiving more of it through some form of radiation from the sun, possibly changing our DNA slowly, i dont know too much about it but it might be something to look into, along with people who are being found to have an extra helix in there DNA, every 25,000 years or so us as humans seem to evolve or go through some huge change be it an ice age, the wipe out of a species or new technologies, we all know that 2012 is the beginning of the next 25,000 year cycle so it should be pretty interesting to see what happens.

Intersting, I know

Submitted by Chris Kaplan on Thu, 12/15/2011 - 18:07.
Interesting, I know researchers have been finding DNA doing some pretty marvelous and mysterious things, like jumping and leaping out of the typical helix patterns. Time will soon tell how these electromagnetic rays from the celestial bodies like the Neutron stars that are directly pointed at Earth, and of course the solar flares that are heating up and peeking in 2013.

epigenetics

Submitted by CatSith13 on Tue, 12/06/2011 - 21:13.
Epigenetics is not a fringe theory anymore, and it's not really "new" anymore...though still an infant subfield of genetics, it's been around in its modern sense almost half a century. It is already being taught at the college level, and it took the concept awhile to reach that far into mainstream education. Although the term has been around since the 1940s, it did not take on its full modern meaning until Robin Holliday's work in the 1970s. I had several lectures on it during a Human Growth and Development course last semester, and we touched on it again in 3 out of 4 classes this semester. Epigenetic processes are responsible for a great deal of the morphological plasticity observed in most biological organisms, most definitely including humans. It is a legitimate and current scientific model of genetic processes of expression and environmental signalling influences (the molecular-level dialogue between biological organisms and the abiotic environment), and is quickly becoming one of the most hard-hitting tools for the new generation of scientists to take apart the old paradigm of genetic determinism.

RS publishes allot of crap.

Submitted by DarumatheKraken on Tue, 12/06/2011 - 23:02.
RS publishes allot of crap. Personality cult bullshit, here do some research and stop following others. Truth is what persists when you cease to live. http://www.scirus.com/srsapp/

Interesting

Submitted by BradCS on Thu, 12/15/2011 - 03:45.
I remember reading an article about bats and moths in Arizona. A group was studying the bats for an extended period and noticed one year that they where having trouble feeding on one of their favorite foods. Turns out the moths had developed the ability to jam the bats sonar in a very short period of time. Could it be that when we hit a certain stress point as a species, there are built in codes within our DNA that allow for sudden evolution? This is not based on much other then this one study, and i don't know if this was the next generation of moths or if it was the same one that existed without the capability and then developed it. I find it interesting and plausible that such rapid changes could occur. These are not the first moths to have the ability to do this, what was so interesting about them was that they where the first to be observed to develop the ability which they did not previously possess.

Awesome, Brad! Thanks for

Submitted by Chris Kaplan on Thu, 12/15/2011 - 18:12.
Awesome, Brad! Thanks for sharing that, I have to look that up. I definitely think so, enough tension and force built up, no matter what system, genetics, physics, etc. will reach a point where the energy overwhelms the vessel and needs to be released, propelling through the threshold and into the new!