Hester, HE Yuanqiu

A mind-blowing paper has come out today in @Nature In 2016, JC Venter Institute scientists trimmed a bacterial genome to its barest minimum required for life to synthesize what they called a "minimal genome" (science.org/doi/10.1126/sc…). Today, a group of scientists from Indiana University reports how that minimal genome evolved over 2000 generations in comparison to the non-minimal genome. The authors found that even when you reduce a bacterial genome to its absolute minimum where every nucleotide matters, the genome undergoes mutational events generation after generation as much as the non-minimal genome. One simply cannot stop the evolution. Just over 300 days of evolution (equivalent to 40,000 years in humans) the minimal cell has gained everything it lacked in fitness on day one in comparison to the non-minimal cell. When comparing the evolved traits between the minimal and non-minimal cells, the scientists found something striking. The evolutionary process increased the cell size of non-minimal cells but not that of the minimal cell. But that is not the striking part. The scientists were able to identify the key mutation that resulted in cell size evolution. And it turned out that the mutation that helped the non-minimal cells to grow bigger is the same that helped the minimal cells to stay smaller. Growing bigger had a survival advantage for non-minimal cells and not growing bigger had a survival advantage for minimal cells. So, the mutation had a context-dependent effect. This just demonstrates that the evolutionary effects on traits have no absolute direction. All that matter is what is beneficial for the organism's survival. The conclusion of the paper is metaphorically a quote from the Jurassic Park movie: “Listen, if there’s one thing the history of evolution has taught us is that life will not be contained. Life breaks free. It expands to new territories, and it crashes through barriers painfully, maybe even dangerously, but . . . life finds a way". (scienmag.com/artificial-cel…) nature.com/articles/s4158…

Congrats Dr Arromrak @bovernsuchart for the great #PhD defense! We are all very proud of you 👏 Looking forward to your next achievements!🎉🎉 @iBEER_LAB

Hong Kong oyster exhibits higher immune resistance to OA than Portuguese oyster, and we found that it's related to the homeostasis of gut microbiome. Please see our recent work below. This link is free to access until April09. authors.elsevier.com/a/1gcnR,3oDQuO…

Structural stability of the oyster gut microbiome contributes to the host's physiological tolerance to temperature fluctuations on tropical rocky shores biorxiv.org/cgi/content/sh… #bioRxiv

Wild Hong Kong oysters are resistant to ocean acidification but still vulnerable to bacteria infection. See our recent paper😄😄😄🎉🎉🎉. doi.org/10.1016/j.envp… Thanks my labmate David and thanks my wife @Hester820 to draw the nice graphical abstract! Let's keep going🎊🎊✨

New in ME: Epigenetic-associated phenotypic plasticity of the ocean acidification-acclimated edible oyster in the 2 mariculture environment. link -> buff.ly/3OCVnKp