Beyond A 'Speed Limit' On Mutations, Species Risk Extinction


	Beyond A 'Speed Limit' On Mutations, Species Risk Extinction

Mohir

10-4-2007 12:28 PM

536 views

tags:

evolution, biology, gentetics

2 Comments |

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10-5-2007 4:23 PM

jstates1

This is interesting. Too bad they didn't take the speed limit and try to calculate a required length of time for evolution from basic amino acids to multicellular life...

10-8-2007 5:20 AM

syncopath

this is indeed some food 4 thought.
speed limit.. ?!!

we humans as limited perceptors assume "Life" 2b infinite. partly because we fail 2measure a phenomenon that is beyond a certain threshold of randomness.

Now, could we be facing new levels of relativity? .. ))

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<div style="margin: 12px 0px; font-family: arial; color: #333333; background: #ffffff; border: solid 4px #e5e5e5; width: 100%; clear: left;"><div class="CM_CTB_Content_Wrap" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;background-color: #ffffff;"><div style="border-bottom: solid 1px #dcdcdc; white-space: nowrap; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: #eeeeee ;background-image: url(http://www.clipmarks.com/images/source-bg.gif); background-repeat: repeat-x; height: 24px; line-height: 24px; vertical-align: middle; padding-bottom: 4px; color: #666666; font-size: 10px;" ><a href="http://clipmarks.com/clip-to-blog/" title="see clips that are hot right now"><img src="http://content.clipmarks.com/blog_embed/387fe26f-31f4-47cc-9f48-d987732ab53b/C3298DA7-55D6-4B92-AA51-0E0648AA76EF/" alt="" width="19" height="19" border="0" style="vertical-align: middle; margin: 0px 4px; display: inline; border: none; float:none;" /></a>clipped from <a title="http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/10/071001172753.htm" href="http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/10/071001172753.htm" style="font-size: 11px;">www.sciencedaily.com</a></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/10/071001172753.htm"><H1 class="story">Beyond A 'Speed Limit' On Mutations, Species Risk Extinction</H1></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/10/071001172753.htm"><P class="first"><EM><A href="http://www.sciencedaily.com" linkindex="12">Science Daily</A> —</EM>  Harvard University scientists have identified a virtual "speed limit" on the rate of molecular evolution in organisms, and the magic number appears to be 6 mutations per genome per generation -- a level beyond which species run the strong risk of extinction as their genomes lose stability. </P></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/10/071001172753.htm"><P>By modeling the stability of proteins required for an organism's survival, Eugene Shakhnovich and his colleagues have discovered this essential thermodynamic limit on a species's rate of evolution. Their discovery, published recently in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, draws a crucial connection between the physical properties of genetic material and the survival fitness of an entire organism.</P></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/10/071001172753.htm"><P>The research was inspired in part by the longstanding recognition that knocking out essential genes, making them inactive, produces a lethal phenotype, or a physiologically unviable organism. </P></blockquote></div><div style="margin: 0px 6px 6px 4px;"><table style="font-size: 11px;border-spacing: 0px;padding: 0px;" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tr><td style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;">&nbsp;</td><td align="right" style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;width:107px" width="107"><a href="http://clipmarks.com/share/C3298DA7-55D6-4B92-AA51-0E0648AA76EF/blog/" title="blog or email this clip"><img src="http://content7.clipmarks.com/images/c2b-foot.png" border="0" alt="blog it" width="107" height="17" style="border-width:0px;padding:0px;margin:0px;" /></a></td></tr></table></div></div>

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