(Press-News.org) EAST LANSING, Mich. - The KISS concept ¬- keep it simple, stupid - may work for many situations. However, when it comes to evolution, complexity appears to be key for prosperity and propagating future generations.
Research led by Michigan State University's BEACON Center for the Study of Evolution in Action shows that organisms sometimes have to use increasingly complex defenses to continue evading parasites' attacks and live longer than their simpler cousins. The results, published in the current issue of PLOS Biology, show how the virus-resistant hosts live better, and more fit, lives.
The experiments, conducted in a digital realm, pitted self-replicating computer programs against computer viruses in the domain of the Avida platform for digital evolution. The co-evolution of host and virus ultimately led to organisms with capabilities superior to those of organisms that evolved without battling the viruses, said Luis Zaman, of MSU's BEACON Center.
"The organisms faced off against some pretty nasty viruses, ones that quickly overcame the easy ways of becoming resistant," said Zaman, who's now a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Washington. "This left only more and more complex options for co-evolving hosts. We thought to ourselves, maybe the organisms that were more readily adaptable than the others, more evolvable, would be the ones left standing at the end of the experiments."
The team of scientists showed that the long-lasting hosts were indeed more evolvable.
Zaman conducted the study with fellow MSU BEACON scientists Justin Meyer, now at the University of California-San Diego; Suhas Devangam, who's now at Wayne State University; David Bryson, who's now at Apple; Richard Lenski and Charles Ofria.
They measured how frequently random mutations in the hosts' genetic code provided escape from infection. The scientists found a surprisingly large proportion of these so-called "switching" mutations in the co-evolved hosts ¬- nearly 10 times more than their counterparts that hadn't co-evolved.
They attained these key mutations by deftly dancing with the very agent trying to kill them. Parasite attacks, host evolves, counters and survives. Parasite encodes and thereby metaphorically reviews the entire history of the war in its genetic code, advances and deploys a new weapon. Host blocks with shield. And on and on the fighting rages.
The war doesn't deplete the hosts. The battle-tested organisms instead survive, but only the strong are left. Rather than exile the enemy, hosting the virus is perhaps a better strategy in the long run - one with ramifications well beyond the digital model.
These computer parasites will not be found on unwashed hands or in undercooked holiday hams, but they have provided a model that may explain how evolutionary arms races drive the emergence of complexity.
"Even though we're basically studying computer viruses, we're able to address some of the oldest questions in evolutionary biology," Zaman said. "Co-evolution and parasites are everywhere, and our research with Avida lets us understand their effects on complexity and evolvability with incredible detail."
INFORMATION:
This research was funded by the National Science Foundation.
Michigan State University has been working to advance the common good in uncommon ways for more than 150 years. One of the top research universities in the world, MSU focuses its vast resources on creating solutions to some of the world's most pressing challenges, while providing life-changing opportunities to a diverse and inclusive academic community through more than 200 programs of study in 17 degree-granting colleges.
For MSU news on the Web, go to MSUToday. Follow MSU News on Twitter at twitter.com/MSUnews.
VIDEO:
New research suggests that children who receive many material rewards from their parents will likely continue rewarding themselves with material goods when they are grown -- well into adulthood --...
Click here for more information.
COLUMBIA, Mo. - With the holiday season in full swing and presents piling up under the tree, many parents may be tempted to give children all the toys and gadgets they ask for or use the expectation of gifts to manage children's behavior. Now, ...
Researchers from Johns Hopkins have found that dense mats of interacting bacteria, called biofilms, were present in the majority of cancers and polyps, particularly those on the right side of the colon. The presence of these bacterial bunches, they say, may represent an increased risk for colon cancer and could form the basis of new diagnostic tests.
Like tooth plaque and slime on pond stones, bacterial biofilms may coat the mucus layer of cells lining the colon, causing inflammation and some noncancerous bowel diseases. The bacteria "invade the layer of mucus that protects ...
DURHAM, N.C. -- American children are generally safer and better-educated than they have been in 20 years, a new report from Duke University finds.
Stubborn problems remain, including high rates of child poverty and a still-raging obesity epidemic, the 2014 National Child and Youth Well-Being Index Report notes.
But "compared to 20 years ago, U.S. children are doing pretty well," said the report's lead author, Kenneth Land, the John Franklin Crowell Professor of Sociology at Duke.
The report is based on the Duke Child Well-Being Index, a comprehensive measure of ...
AMES, Iowa - As a glacier's sliding speed increases, the bed beneath the glacier can grow slipperier, according to laboratory experiments conducted by Iowa State University glaciologists.
They say including this effect in efforts to calculate future increases in glacier speeds could improve predictions of ice volume lost to the oceans and the rate of sea-level rise.
The glaciologists - Lucas Zoet, a postdoctoral research associate, and Neal Iverson, a professor of geological and atmospheric sciences - describe the results of their experiments in the Journal of Glaciology. ...
New Year's resolution-makers should beware of skewed perceptions. People tend to believe good behaviors are more beneficial in reaching goals than bad behaviors are in obstructing goals, according to a University of Colorado Boulder-led study.
A dieter, for instance, might think refraining from eating ice cream helps his weight-management goal more than eating ice cream hurts it, overestimating movement toward versus away from his target.
"Basically what our research shows is that people tend to accentuate the positive and downplay the negative when considering how ...
New research from The Johns Hopkins University suggests that the amount of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) found in peoples' blood directly relates to how frail they are medically. This DNA may prove to be a useful predictor of overall risk of frailty and death from any cause 10 to 15 years before symptoms appear.
The investigators say their findings contribute to the scientific understanding of aging and may lead to a test that could help identify at-risk individuals whose physical fitness can be improved with drugs or lifestyle changes. A summary of the research was published ...
DURHAM, N.C. -- Ancient DNA extracted from the bones and teeth of giant lemurs that lived thousands of years ago in Madagascar may help explain why the giant lemurs went extinct. It also explains what factors make some surviving species more at risk today, says a study in the Journal of Human Evolution.
Most scientists agree that humans played a role in the giant lemurs' demise by hunting them for food and forcing them out of habitats. But an analysis of their DNA suggests that the largest lemurs were more prone to extinction than smaller-bodied species because of their ...
The remnants of Tropical Cyclone Bakung continue to linger in the Southern Indian Ocean, and NOAA-NASA's Suomi NPP (Suomi NPP) satellite is one satellite keeping an eye on the storm for possible re-development.
On Dec. 16, the remnant low pressure area formerly known as Bakung was centered near 7.4 south longitude and 83.8 east latitude. That's about 670 nautical miles (771 miles/1,241 km) east of the coral atoll known as Diego Garcia. The atoll is part of the British Indian Ocean Territory.
At 07:31 UTC (2:31 a.m. EST) NOAA-NASA's Suomi NPP satellite passed over Bakung's ...
For people with asthma or severe allergies, medical devices like inhalers and epinephrine autoinjectors, such as EpiPen, can be lifesaving.
However, a new study by the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston indicates that a majority of patients often do not use these devices correctly, resulting in less effective delivery of these medications and potentially disastrous outcomes.
"Improving how patients use these devices leads to better clinical outcomes," said Dr. Rana Bonds, lead author and assistant professor in the department of internal medicine, division ...
A University of Alberta economics professor has discovered a link between contraband cigarette use and illicit drug use among Canadian teens.
Professor Mesbah Sharaf, a health economics lecturer at the University of Alberta in Canada, recently published a joint study with the University of Waterloo titled "Association Between Contraband Tobacco and Illicit Drug Use Among High School Students in Canada" in The Journal of Primary Prevention.
The study shows that 31 per cent of adolescent smokers in Canada between grades 9 and 12 use contraband tobacco and indicates ...
