In evolution, slow and steady wins

[n2doc]

By John Roach
A slow and steady approach to evolution appears to give the winning edge, at least in a petri dish, according to a new study.

The finding stems from the long-term evolution project in Richard Lenski's lab at Michigan State University with the bacteria Escherichia coli. Lenski studies evolution through experiments on these bacteria, which have now grown for more than 50,000 generations.

In this experiment, Lenski and colleagues pitted four genetically distinct sub colonies of the E. coli against each other to find out which one would eventually take over a petri dish.

It turns out that the sub colonies of E. coli that acquired mutations more slowly — and at first appeared less fit — beat out their more rapidly evolving counterparts and eventually won the race.

The reason for the plodders' success comes down to what's called a higher evolvability — the potential to continue to adapt to the environment in which they live — than their speedier counterparts, according to the researchers, whose results were published in the March 18 issue of Science.

http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/03/18/6294783-in-evolution-slow-and-steady-wins


....at least in this case....

[NeoGreen]

1. Gradualism vs Punctuated Equilbrium?

Hmmm...

How do the findings scale with multicelluar organisms? And is the scaling valid?