Posted on 04/09/2011 9:00:02 AM PDT by balls
It appears to be a case of high-speed evolution.
Many arthropods the large group of invertebrates that includes insects and crustaceans are hosts of symbiotic bacteria inherited through the maternal line. The sweet potato whitefly, an agricultural pest, has acquired a new one.
Over a six-year period, a bacterium from the genus Rickettsia swept through the whitefly population, assuring survival advantages for the whiteflies and for itself. The new research appears in the April 8 issue of Science.
Whiteflies that have this infection have greater fitness, at least in the laboratory, said the senior author of the study, Martha S. Hunter, a professor of entomology at the University of Arizona. Well be testing whether this fitness benefit exists in the field as well.
Compared with uninfected whiteflies, infected insects develop faster, are more likely to survive to adulthood and lay more eggs. Moreover, the bacterium induces the insects to produce a larger number of daughters, advantageous for a bacterium that is passed to the next generation only by the females.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Works for me! The more insecticides I can sell, the better off my wallet and the world are, LOL! :)
Beware!
“Just when you thought you won the rat race, they invent faster rats.” ~ George Carlin
So if we move some people from Indiana over to a remote region of the Mojave desert, they will "speciate" into monkeys?
No...cauliflowers./sarc
The first step toward speciation is formation of sub-species or races. Humans do not all look alike because over tens of thousands of years different populations--when isolated from each other--begin to accumulate genetic changes that do not happen in other populations. Koreans do not look like Somalians because their ancestors have been separated for tens or perhaps hundreds of thousands of years.
If the isolation continues for millions of years, new species could develop...that is the theory that is supported by many facts. But: can we watch a new species be created? No...we don't live that long.
I hope this was helpful.
So, in your view, Koreans and Somalians are slowly turning into different species. What is the evidence for this odd assertion?
Secondly, I did NOT say that Koreans and Somalians were becoming separate species; what I said is that races (or as non-human races are defined, sub-species) if separated from each other for a long, long time--millions of years--can change enough genetically from each other to become separate species. So, Norwegians and Bangladeshis, if kept separate for millions of years, could wind up after that time as different enough from each other to constitute different species.
Please click here for a better and more complete explanation of speciation along with concrete examples.
It seems like a stupid thing to say, doesn't it? But alas, you did say it in post 14.
So, Norwegians and Bangladeshis, if kept separate for millions of years, could wind up after that time as different enough from each other to constitute different species.
In post 14 you said "Speciation occurs when populations or sub-populations are isolated (genetically) from their sisters and brothers over a long period of time." There's no "could" there. You did not say 'species could be formed when... ' Previously, in post 14, you said you knew how species were formed. Now you say you don't know.
So, my question is, why do you think Bangladeshis and Norwegians are becoming seperate species? Do you have a particle of evidence to support that strange assertion?
I hope this helps.
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