How evolution can improve the ability to evolve

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2025-02-24 10:51

New Zealand; International

The bacterium Pseudomonas fluorescens streaked to single colonies on Tryptone-Yeast Extract (TY) agar and visualized under white light. Credit: Ninjatacoshell, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

The ability to evolve can help species avoid going extinct, and new research led by New Zealand scientists based overseas shows how this adaptability itself evolves. They spent three years experimenting on a bacteria species so it would alternate between two types - those that form mats of cells by producing cellulose, and those that don't produce cellulose but colonise such mats instead. The researchers selected and grew those that alternated between the types, creating lineages of bacteria that were good at switching traits. They traced this property back to a genetic process that mutated up to 10,000 times faster in these lineages than in the original bacteria, and say their findings show how disease-causing microbes might evolve quickly.

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From: Study author

Scientists Demonstrate That Evolution Can Favor Future Adaptability

A new study explores how evolution can shape organisms to be more adaptable in the future. Using bacteria, researchers tested whether natural selection could favor genetic systems that increase the likelihood of beneficial mutations. Over many generations, bacterial lineages evolved a unique mechanism that allowed them to switch between traits more efficiently, enhancing their survival in changing environments. These findings suggest that evolution does not just act on traits beneficial in the present but can also shape the ability to adapt, offering new insights into how life evolves over time.

Expert Reaction

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Prof. Paul B Rainey, Director of the Department of Microbial Population Biology, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology, Germany

Life can appear to have foresight, adapting as if anticipating future challenges. This idea is deeply problematic for evolutionary biology, where natural selection is fundamentally blind, favoring only traits beneficial in the present.

"Our experiment shows how mechanisms that seem to confer evolutionary foresight can emerge naturally, without violating the principles of evolution.”

Last updated: 25 Feb 2025 8:39am

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Declared conflicts of interest Prof. Rainey is an author of this study.

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conference: Science

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Organisation/s: Max Planck Institute - Germany

Funder: This work was funded by Max Planck Society core funding.

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