Full repetition leads to long -term adaptation

Sometimes, the most important scientific discoveries occur by chance. Scientists have long known that the full duplication of the genome (WGD)-the process by which living organisms copy all their genetic materials-play an important role in development. But understanding how WGD appears, is still ongoing, and adaptation remains poorly understood.

At an unexpected turn, scientists in Georgia Tech not only revealed how WGD occurred, but also how it remains stable over thousands of generations of development in the laboratory.

The new study was led by William Ratcliffe, a professor at the College of Biological Sciences, and Kai Tong, former doctorate. A student in the Ratcliffe Laboratory, who is now a post -PhD fellow at Boston University.

Their paper was, “Repeating the genome in the experience of long -term multi -cell development”, ” Published in nature As a magazine cover story in March.

“We have begun to explore how living organisms move to multi -cell, but discovering the role of WGD in this process was completely credible,” said Ratcliffe. “This research provides new visions on how WGD appears, continued for long periods, and the evolutionary innovation of fuel. This is really exciting.”

A hidden secret of data

In 2018, the Ratcliffe laboratory launched an experience to explore an open multi -cell development. Multee’s multi -term development experience is used as a “SACCHAROMYCES CEREVISIAE” yeast (SACCHAROMYCES CEREVISIAE) as a means, and develops from one cell to increasingly complex multi -cell organisms. The researchers do this by choosing yeast cells for a larger size on a daily basis.

“Long -term development studies help us answer major questions on how to adapt living organisms and develop,” Tong said. “Often they reveal unexpected and expand our understanding of evolutionary processes.”

This is exactly what happened when Ozan Bozdag, a faculty member at the Ratcliffe Laborat, noticed something unusual in the snowflake yeast. Notice the yeast when it was 1000 days old and saw properties indicating that it may have been transmitted from Diploidy (has two groups of chromosomes) to the quadruple (four).

Contracts from laboratory experiments show that quadruple dye unstable in a distinctive way, returning to Diploidy within a few hundred generations. For this reason, Tong was skeptical that WGD had happened and lasted for thousands of generations in Multe. If this is true, this will be the first time that WGD has been created automatically and continued in the laboratory.

After taking advanced yeast measurements, Tong found that they repeated their genomics very early – with the first 50 days of Multee. Fightly, these tetpoids gymnasium continued for more than 1000 days, and continued to prosper despite the usual instability of WGD in laboratory conditions.

The team discovered that WGD originated and hung because it gave the yeast an immediate advantage in growing longer and longer cells and forming larger multi -cell groups, which you prefer to choose the size in Multe.

Other experiments have shown that although WGD in a snowflake yeast is usually unstable, it continued in Multee because large multi -cell groups had a survival feature. This stability allowed the yeast with genetic changes, with no dye imbalance (the presence of an abnormal number of chromosomes) that plays a major role in multi -cell development. As a result, Multee has become the longest multi -dye development experience, providing new visions on how the genome repetition contributes to biological complexity.

Multi -talent team

Ratcliffe confirmed that strict university research played an important role in its unexpected penetration. Four university students were an integral part of the success of the experiment, as they joined the research early in their education in Georgia Tech.

“This type of authentic research experience is to change life and clarify our professions for our students,” said Ratcliffe. “You cannot get this level of learning in the semester.”

Vivian Cheng, who joined the Ratclifiv laboratory in the first year and graduated in 2022, is facing the challenge of genetic genetic genetic genetic breeds with another student. Ratcliffe and Tong finished using these same strains as a major part of their analysis.

“This work is another step towards understanding the various factors that contribute to the development of pluralism,” said Cheng, now. A candidate at the University of Illinois Urbana Champin. “It is great to see how this single factor affects the level of Ploidy on the choice in these yeast cells.”

Ratcliffe notes that some of the most important results of his team could not have been expected when they started Multee. But this is the main point, he says.

He added: “The most long -term results of these experiences are often the ones that we did not aim to study, but this appears unexpectedly.” “They are paying the limits of what we think is possible.” He and Assistant Professor James Strad will be expanded on this topic in reviewing long -term experiences in evolutionary biology, published in the same number nature.

This discovery casts a new light on the evolutionary dynamics of the full duality of genome and provides a unique opportunity to explore the consequences of these genetic events. With its ability to fuel future discoveries in evolutionary biology, this work represents an important step in understanding how life develops on both short -term and long -term range.

“Scientific progress is rarely a clear journey,” Tong said. “Instead, it is revealed along different different paths, and often meets in sudden ways. In these interventions, the most exciting discoveries are made.”