Re: Questions about the life and death of prokaryotes

On Wed, 14 Dec 2005 11:09:59 -0500, Walter Bushell <proto@xxxxxxxxx>
wrote:

>In article <1134542482.267812.235030@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
> "rev.goetz" <jimgoetz316@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

>
>> However, in the case of reproduction by mere cell division, if the
>> ancestor does not die from the cell division, the ancestor lives in the
>> next generation, and so on. Now if some of the lineages eventually
>> evolve into lineages that reproduce strictly by sexual reproduction,
>> then the cycle of ancestors living after reproductive cell division
>> ends. But for the lineages that continue to reproduce by cell division,
>> then the process continues till extinction. However, all of this
>> depends upon whether the so-called parent prokaryote continues to exist
>> after it divides into two cells. And I am not sure if the parent
>> prokaryote continues to exist after it divides into two cells.
>
>> Yes, we come from a cellular lineage that is roughly 4 billion years,
>> but sexually reproductive animals die sometime after reproduction.
>
>Most, of course, die long before reproduction. Seen the movies of the
>sea turtles and their scramble to the water? On the grand average of all
>the eggs a she sea turtle lays only two can survive to reproduce.
>

In fact if you take the average time between cell divisions as one
"generation", half of all microbes die each generation assuming the
population size is relatively stable.

Incidentally, when a cell divides, the two daughter cells are
generally considered "new" and the age clock is reset. (Cell
divisions within a multicellular eukaryote are a bit different --
these can show age.) So "life" may be billions of years old and there
is a continuity of living cells dividing from the earliest time until
now, but no currently living "thing", cell or organism, is that old.


.

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