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Old 29-03-2011, 07:41 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by CraigS View Post
Yep .. the circumstances which cause these bacteria to become toxic, may well result in this species being on the well-trodden path towards extinction. However, you could also say that this species has been around for a very, very long time, and has clearly demonstrated its survival capabilities.

Therein lies a paradox .. if its been happy living in a symbiotic relationship with hosts for all that long, why does it still posses the ability to kill itself off in this manner ?

Cheers
Again there is no paradox here.

You can safely assume that a bad mutation took place... and bacteria with this will not survive.

But, if a good mutation takes place - for example, bacteria multiplies a bit more but doesn't kill the host BEFORE it manages to jump to another one- then this strain will survive (read: that DNA will survive).

No paradox at all.
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