"Experimental evolution develops into thriving scientific field"
www.realcities.com/mld/krwa...66995.htm
Until recently, the young field of experimental evolution - also known as evolutionary microbiology - was considered to lie on the lunatic fringe of real science. But now it hosts a thriving community of researchers in academia and industry, with increasing support from the federal government.
Besides helping to illuminate the process of evolution, their work has practical goals in medicine, agriculture, manufacturing and the environment.
Experimental evolution "is being used in many contexts to create new drugs and industrial enzymes," reported Holly Wichman, a biologist at the University of Idaho.
For example, Wilfred Chen, a chemical engineer at the University of California, Berkeley, is trying to evolve an enzyme that renders toxic pesticides harmless. Andrew Ellington, a biochemist at the University of Texas, Austin, has his sights on a molecule that acts as a decoy for the HIV virus, preventing it from developing into AIDS.
Not all experiments succeed. Huimin Zhao, a biochemical engineer at the University of Illinois, tried using evolutionary techniques to improve a natural anti-freeze protein that keeps fish alive in icy Antarctic waters. Zhao hoped such a protein would help develop frost-resistant plants, but the process didn't work, he said.
Humans, of course, have been tinkering with evolution since they first domesticated plants and animals 10,000 years ago. By selective breeding, they improved varieties of corn, wheat, dogs and goats that far surpass their wild ancestors.
That kind of progress takes centuries or millennia, however. The new laboratory experiments speed up the evolutionary clock enormously. "We're learning just how remarkably fast evolution can accomplish many things," said Lenski.
"Short-term adaptation to the environment can be observed in real time," Wichman wrote on her Web site. "It is short-term evolution that contributes to health problems such as drug resistance and host switching." (Host switching is the dangerous trick by which a lethal flu virus, for example, hops from chickens to people.)
www.realcities.com/mld/krwa...66995.htm
Until recently, the young field of experimental evolution - also known as evolutionary microbiology - was considered to lie on the lunatic fringe of real science. But now it hosts a thriving community of researchers in academia and industry, with increasing support from the federal government.
Besides helping to illuminate the process of evolution, their work has practical goals in medicine, agriculture, manufacturing and the environment.
Experimental evolution "is being used in many contexts to create new drugs and industrial enzymes," reported Holly Wichman, a biologist at the University of Idaho.
For example, Wilfred Chen, a chemical engineer at the University of California, Berkeley, is trying to evolve an enzyme that renders toxic pesticides harmless. Andrew Ellington, a biochemist at the University of Texas, Austin, has his sights on a molecule that acts as a decoy for the HIV virus, preventing it from developing into AIDS.
Not all experiments succeed. Huimin Zhao, a biochemical engineer at the University of Illinois, tried using evolutionary techniques to improve a natural anti-freeze protein that keeps fish alive in icy Antarctic waters. Zhao hoped such a protein would help develop frost-resistant plants, but the process didn't work, he said.
Humans, of course, have been tinkering with evolution since they first domesticated plants and animals 10,000 years ago. By selective breeding, they improved varieties of corn, wheat, dogs and goats that far surpass their wild ancestors.
That kind of progress takes centuries or millennia, however. The new laboratory experiments speed up the evolutionary clock enormously. "We're learning just how remarkably fast evolution can accomplish many things," said Lenski.
"Short-term adaptation to the environment can be observed in real time," Wichman wrote on her Web site. "It is short-term evolution that contributes to health problems such as drug resistance and host switching." (Host switching is the dangerous trick by which a lethal flu virus, for example, hops from chickens to people.)
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