Evolutionary theory predicts that pairs of chromosomes within asexual organisms will evolve independently of each other and become increasingly different over time in a phenomenon, predicted almost twenty years ago, called the 'Meselson effect'. However, the evidence for this event has proved elusive. Until now.
Researchers from the University of Glasgow have demonstrated the Meselson effect for the first time in any organism at a genome-wide level, studying a parasite called Trypanosoma brucei gambiense (T.b. gambiense),
which is responsible for causing African sleeping sickness in humans, leading to severe symptoms including fever, headaches, extreme fatigue, and aching muscles and joints, which do not occur until weeks or sometimes even months after infection.
By looking at 85 genomes of the African sleeping sickness parasite over the last 50 years in various places, which had resulted from the parasite's transfer from organism to organism via a fly, scientists saw similarities indicating they had all come from one parasite within the last 10,000 years.
http://phys.org/news/2016-01-scientists-key-aspect-evolutionary-theory.html
Researchers from the University of Glasgow have demonstrated the Meselson effect for the first time in any organism at a genome-wide level, studying a parasite called Trypanosoma brucei gambiense (T.b. gambiense),
which is responsible for causing African sleeping sickness in humans, leading to severe symptoms including fever, headaches, extreme fatigue, and aching muscles and joints, which do not occur until weeks or sometimes even months after infection.
By looking at 85 genomes of the African sleeping sickness parasite over the last 50 years in various places, which had resulted from the parasite's transfer from organism to organism via a fly, scientists saw similarities indicating they had all come from one parasite within the last 10,000 years.
http://phys.org/news/2016-01-scientists-key-aspect-evolutionary-theory.html
