macroevolution: (Default)
macroevolution ([personal profile] macroevolution) wrote2010-12-06 11:09 pm

Мышьячные бактерии

Обстоятельный отчет о них на Элементах
Елена Наймарк
Мышьяк вместо фосфора — это реально!

[identity profile] eugene-koonin.livejournal.com 2010-12-06 09:49 pm (UTC)(link)
We must wait and see. Detailed investigation in several labs will necessarily follow, and the truth will be known within a few months.

To me, this reminds of the old story of induced mutations:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3045565

The authors of this famous paper thought they have disproved the Central Dogma. Not quite so. The study triggered the discovery of extremely interesting mechanisms of stress-induced mutagenesis but no "unicorn in the garden".

Somehow I suspect that the As story will evolve in the same direction. Although it would be tremendously exciting to be wrong with this prediction.

[identity profile] leolion-1.livejournal.com 2010-12-07 06:30 am (UTC)(link)
Chemists believe that the simple modeling of As-substituted DNA is quite enough to disprove the whole thing. Unless biologists think the DNA-related machinery can change accordingly in a course of 3-week evolution.

Erratum

[identity profile] leolion-1.livejournal.com 2010-12-07 07:38 am (UTC)(link)
3-month evolution