Tópico: Evolução no laboratório

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LiveScience.com

Scientists Force Evolution in the Lab
By Robert Roy Britt
LiveScience Managing Editor
posted: 02 February 2006
02:04 pm ET
   
Scientists have forced a little evolution in the laboratory, controlling whether a caterpillar becomes green or black.
The color of the critter was made to vary with temperature during their development. The experiment reveals the basic hormonal mechanism underlying the evolution of such dual traits, the researchers report in the Feb. 3 issue of the journal Science.
The study was done on Manduca sexta, a caterpillar commonly called the tobacco hornworm. Its larvae are normally green. A related species, Manduca quinquemaculata, becomes black or green depending on temperature. The idea was to use similar temperature shocks to evolve a similar change in M. sexta.
Differing color traits induced by environmental factors are called polyphenisms.
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http://www.livescience.com/animalworld/060202_lab_evo.html