Ideas
Definitions
Processes
Characters
Paper
100
This hypothesis suggests coevolutionary dynamics in which microorganisms are loosing essential functions when another in their group is performing that function. It is coexistence without directly interacting, and suggests an idea for how microbial communities are organized.
What is the Black Queen Hypothesis?
100
Rare members in a community that are relied upon for survival
What is a keystone species?
100
Genes are exchanged independently of reproduction
What is horizontal gene transfer?
100
This ocean dwelling plankton was studied to illustrate the Black Queen Hypothesis.
What is Prochlorococcus?
100
Scientists who wrote the paper.
Who are J. Jeffrey Morris, Richard Lenski, and Erik Zinser?
200
This hypothesis is what the Black Queen Hypothesis is based off of; it tried to explain why there is so much extinction in the fossil record, due to a deteriorating environment due to coevolution with other species
What is the Red Queen Hypothesis?
200
The number of beneficiaries is kept in check by the number of helpers available to keep the hydrogen peroxide at bay.
What is density dependence?
200
This can be driven by genetic drift or natural selection, and often causes the loss of functions.
What is reproductive genomic evolution?
200
Organisms that selectively lose genetic content and rely on other organisms (from the same or different species) to do the work, so that they may focus on growth and survival
What are beneficiaries?
200
March 23, 2012
When was the hypothesis published?
300
This happens when the benefits outweigh the costs of letting other microbes do the hard work.
When do microbes shed necessary genes?
300
A change in the gene pool due to chance.
What is genetic drift?
300
Carrying around excess genes uses this.
What is energy?
300
A small percentage of these slow-to-change microorganisms take on these roles in the community of the same and/or different species. This role does not necessarily diminish their fitness, but offers them "job security" due to the community's dependence on them.
What is helpers?
300
The name "The Black Queen Hypothesis" was derived from this.
What is the card game "Hearts"?
400
The requirement that lost functions be dispensable to an organism, such that an organism does not need to carry around the extra genes involved.
What is successful genomic streamlining?
400
This is a change in the DNA sequence that makes up a gene.
What is a mutation?
400
A process, such as the neutralization of hydrogen peroxide, that makes its function beneficial to others around it as a public good
What is a leaky process?
400
Mutants in a species that stop performing a function that is beneficial to the group but costly for the individual.
What are cheaters?
400
In the game of "Hearts", this is the most costly card to hold in your hands.
What is the queen of spades?
500
Other functions that may be analyzed in the Black Queen Hypothesis framework.
What are nitrogen fixation, inorganic nutrient acquisition, and biofilm deposition?
500
Prochlorococcus needs this neutralized in order to survive. It is created in the ocean by photooxidation of dissolved organic carbon.
What is hydrogen peroxide?
500
This is a process of continuous change from lower, simpler, or worse to a higher, more complex, or better state.
What is evolution?
500
The organisms that do the "dirty work" for the community.
What are donkey microorganisms?
500
“Products that are energetically or nutritionally expensive; functions that are performed and products produced by only a fraction of the community; functions that are leaky enough for the resulting public goods to be used by other species; & precuts that are vital to the community, not just the producer. (Morris, p. 4)”
What are the four general principals of the Black Queen Hypothesis?
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