Oct 21 2009
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Scientists Watch Evolution Unfold In 21 Year Long Experiment
Researchers at Michigan University have been conducting an experiment for 21 years. In it they bottled up some E. coli bacteria in 1988 and watched what happened.
By the 20,000 generation researches counted 45 mutations. Darwin’s theory predicted that these mutations should have conferred some advantage, and this is exactly what the researchers found.
Around the 26,000 generation a mutation arose which was involved in DNA metabolism. This caused the mutation rate to increase dramatically. The number of mutations jumped to 653 by generation 40,000; however some of the these late-evolving mutations were not helpful to the bacteria; mutations in human DNA result in some cancers.
The research is ongoing.
