“Study Reveals Fungus Can Grow Tens of Thousands Times Larger and Supports Evolution of Multicellular Life”

Jakarta –

A study revealed that a fungus that initially did not appear to be able to expand larger, in fact can grow tens of thousands larger.

The research began as a single cell in 2018, invisible to the human eye, but has now evolved into a multicellular creature the size of a flea.

Quoted from Live Sciencea study by the Georgia Institute of Technology examined brewer’s yeast that mutates to remain attached to microscopic single-celled organisms or fungi.

This selection of yeast is used because yeast can grow the fastest. Their research resulted in an organism containing more than half a million clone cells – 20,000 times larger than its ancestor.

Researchers say that this finding is an unparalleled example of continuous multicellular evolution.

“By putting our finger on the evolutionary scale of single-celled organisms, we can see how they evolved into increasingly complex and integrated multicellular organisms, and can study those processes along the way,” said evolutionary biologist William Ratcliff of Georgia Tech.

The Earth Came From Tiny Organisms

You know, evidence suggests that life on Earth originated from single-celled organisms about 3.5 billion years ago.

About two to three billion years ago, it became known how cells bonded and evolved into multicellular life forms with specialized networks.

So what does this have to do with the research above?

Experiments on snowflake yeast are now helping experts try and retell the story.

The study is called the Multicellularity Long-Term Evolution Experiment (MuLTEE), and researchers hope to run it for decades. The first major find comes after 3,000 generations of evolution.

Researchers revealed that the growth and evolution of yeast changed from a weak substance to a strong substance.

Ozan Bozdag, as an evolutionary biologist, said that research has found a new physical mechanism that allows this group to grow very large.

In the first experiment, the yeast cells developed larger branches which reduced the overall density of the organism.

After that, the branches pressed together and formed clusters that resembled the consistency of a modern gel. Finally, this new structure makes it 10,000 times more resilient than its single-celled ancestor.

“The cells that evolve develop coil around each other and strengthen their structure,” says Bozdag.

The Role of Oxygen in Evolution

The researchers also discovered the role oxygen is involved in setting the limits of evolutionary progress.

At first, the supply of oxygen on earth was limited. Until a special type of bacteria entered the atmosphere billions of years ago to form multicellular life in the air.

Not only that, this study on yeast also supports that oxygen supports the formation of multicellular life on Earth.

This experiment revealed that oxygen-independent yeast was capable of evolving to enormous sizes.

This discovery also reveals the important role of oxygen levels in the evolution of multicellular size.

Watch Video “Indian Man Infected With Plant Fungus“

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