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#Yeast reveals secret of hitchhiker mutations It takes a group effort of genetic mutations to give organisms the best shot at evolutionary survival a new study suggests.
These extra mutations are termed hitchhikers because they don t appear to contribute to the enhanced fitness of the organism Our study indicates that evolution is more of a group effort says Gregory Lang an associate research scholar in the laboratory of David Botstein at Princeton university s Lewis-Sigler Institute
Drivers and hitchhikers The finding goes against the traditional view of evolution being determined by individual mutations that provide a large fitness advantage by themselves says Michael Desai a former Princeton fellow who is currently at Harvard university.
The whole group which includes hitchhikers drives adaptation together. The relatively small subset of gene mutations that were found to enhance survival Botstein says suggests that there are only a limited number of ways in
and hitchhikers Desai says that additional research is being done to explore which mutations are necessary for adaptation and
Lever is convinced that the microbes are not hitchhikers from the surface, but genuine residents of the crust."
and Nasa worries that they might be carrying microbial hitchhikers from Earth that could contaminate Mars. Of the spacecraft Nasa has sent to Mars,
The techniques are straightforward and familiar similar to the ones used against other aquatic hitchhikers like the VHS virus which threatened trout populations:
Some states such as Minnesota have launched Stop Hitchhikers campaigns to raise awareness and have installed spray units at public boat launches where boaters can clean their vessels and bait buckets.
Once people get behind an effort to stop hitchhikers it's really effective Kerfoot said. People do care.
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