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Some 400 million years ago, on a lifeless lakeshore lapped by waves, floating algae learned to survive in the open air and launched an invasion that transformed the Earth into a green paradise. The secrets of these first steps onto land are now being revealed thanks to the sequencing of a modern descendent of these first land dwellers, a dainty moss called Physcomitrella patens that sprouts on recently exposed shorelines, quickly fruits, and then dies…
“Physcomitrella is to flowering plants what the fruit fly is to humans; that is, in the same way that the fly and mouse have informed animal biology, the genome of this moss will advance our exploration of plant genes and their functions and utility…”
“Unlike vascular plant systems, we can target and delete specific moss genes to study their function in important crop processes, and replace them with genes from crop plants to allow us to study the evolution of gene function. In addition to the genome, extensive genomic tools are now available in Physcomitrella to study comparative gene function and evolution as related to bioenergy and other processes of importance to crops.”
Brent Mishler noted that the draft genome sequence is only the beginning. Pretty exciting to be in at the start of research that threads out into every avenue of investigation.
Haven’t druggies started putting a few hangers-on through college, yet, to start turning this sort of research to something turning an earlier profit? Like, say, growing bountiful buds in the basement without breaking the electric meter with grow lights?
I’m waiting for a Franken-moss comment next..
Even with my oh-so-limited knowledge of biology, I find this article to be amazing and hopeful !
We just might be able to use the information in our not too distant future to save our own skins.
Our planet’s dead little moon has a lot to do with kick starting evolution to get life out of the sea and on to land. Think about it and it makes sense.
The moon is what causes tides. A tide produce a strip of land that is submerged between 1 to 99 percent of the time twice a day.
Within this strip, the tidal zone, the amount of time the land is submerged is directly proportional to where it sits on the tidal zone. The land in the middle gets exactly 50 percent submerged. That is, half the time it is underwater. The land on the upper side gets more time dry. The land on the lower side gets more time wet.
The width of the tidal zone is based on the shape and depth of the ocean floor. A flat shallow floor will produce a huge tidal zone, sometimes miles wide. Look at the mud flats near rivers to see this. Sharp and deep floors creates a very narrow tidal zone, sometimes as little as 3 feet wide.
Now if a water based life form lives in the tidal zone, it will be out of the water twice a day for a varying amount of time, thanks to the tide. As these life forms compete for space and resources, those life forms that are more tolerant of surviving out of the water can move a little further uphill in the tidal zone.
After a while, that area of the tidal zone gets crowded and new generation of life, slightly more tolerant of no-water, pushes in to the empty area uphill.
As the life moves up the tidal zone, the life on the uphill side spends less and less of their life under water as compared to their downhill relatives. Life living on the low edge will spend 95% of their time under water. Life on the high edge will only spend 5% of their time under water. Life in the middle will spend 50% of their time under water.
The same environmental resources impacts fresh versus salt water. As the life moved uphill, more and more of the water it encounters is fresh. Like tolerating air, it also evolves to tolerate fresh water.
Eventually the life on the high end gets to the point where it no longer needs salt water to survive. Then it can thrive on open land.
So there didn’t have to be a revolutionary overnight change to produce an air breathing plant or animal. Shallow oceans, the tides, and lots of time can produce gradual changes to evolve from water to air breathing life.
These scientists are defying the Holy scriptures, we must divert resources from shooting doctors working in abortion clinics to shooting scientists researching evolution.
Wow, I love this sort of thing. Yes #3 it’s indeed a revelation to now think that the dumb old moon may have been a true catalyst in accelerating the long road to sea life gaining a land based foothold. one starts thinking about such a scenario with, say, a hypothetical watery planet that is just like Earth… i.e. in a ‘habitable’ orbit around some benevolent star, but had no moon like ours to stimulate such a transition.
They might develop advanced evolution in the sea, but never realized there were dry continents around to colonize.
But then again… there could be other conditions out there that completely bypass our own situation. (sci-fi writers take note!)