Virus phage λBRIAN D. WADE AND ALICIA PASTOR, CENTER FOR ADVANCED MICROSCOPY, MSU
How many genes does it take to get to the center of a new trait? A pair of papers published today (January 26) in Science looks at just that, probing the molecular basis of how organisms evolve new physical characteristics. In the first study, a virus finds a novel way to infect E. coli under the pressure of co-evolution. In the second study, E. coli adapts to a hot environment using two different survival strategies.
Together, the papers demonstrate that the evolution of beneficial new traits—also called key innovations—is repeatable, rapid, and often spurred by co-evolution and the interaction of genes.
“It’s always been one of the big problems of evolution—how do you get beyond fine tuning of what you’re already doing and come up ...
