Natural Science Forum / Biology / Evolution / November 2005

ON NOISE IN GENE EXPRESSION
The following points are made by J.M. Raser and E.K. O'Shea (Science 2005
309:2010):
1) Any individual in a population of living organisms or cells is unique.

name_and_address_supplied@hotmail.com  wrote:-

OK, here goes.  A derivation of something like Hamilton's rule
for a small population for the behaviour of AA organisms
(two copies of the same allele).
I'm setting up the scenario as follows to try to keep

Chemicals do NOT benefit from any aspect of life.
Chemicals do not benefit from metabolism
Chemicals do not benefit from replication
Chemicals do not benefit from cell membranes

A recent study in the journal Cell, by Gleb Shumyatsky and others,
indicates that the difference between "normally cautious mice" and
"bold mice" is one gene, which governs the protein stathmin in the
amygdala.  The ramifications for drug and even gene therapy are

Vent colonies of today are not independent:
"Many of the organisms in the vent colonies, especially
those that live in the cooler zones a little distance away
from the emerging fluid, use the oxygen that is dissolved

name_and_address_supplied@hotmail.com wrote:_

Hopefully someone here can help me out with a question I'm having a
hard time finding the answer to. I know this is rudimentary but I
couldn't find a beginner's forum, sorry.
Can we change the DNA we pass on in positive ways?  Smoking can cause

Sociobiology, by focusing on sums of unweighted differences in
individual genes rather than focusing on the differences in phylogenic
correlation structure of genes, seems to be suffering from a kind of
"Lewontin's Fallacy", as described by Edwards in his paper.

Background:
"Organisms can adjust the stability of their DNA by
varying the proportions of the two kinds of base pairs,
adenine-thymine, and guanine-cytosine. The GC pair

Hamilton's Rule invalid?
Hamilton's Rule specifies when altruistic behavior is adaptive and is the
cornerstone of kin selection theory. A new paper argues that it is invalid:
Hamilton's rule, and the model of kin selection on which it is based, was

I know you dont do human biology in here but I thought I would mention this
TV programme in passing. Amazing...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sn/tvradio/programmes/horizon/ghostgenes.shtml

A SINGLE CELL LIVING 250 MILLION YEARS?
The following points are made by Christopher R. Brodie (American Scientist
2005 Nov-Dec):
1) What is the oldest living thing on Earth? A Madagascar radiated tortoise

Multi-level selection
Sean Rice
Dept. of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology
Yale University :

Many origin scenarios are stymied by the bombardment
phase that builds up to a peak at 4.0, then drops off at 3.45 BYA
.
Yet David Darling writes that things may not be as they seem.