Sat Jun 21 06:00:02 UTC 2025: Okay, here’s a news article based on the provided text:
**Headline: Snowflake Yeast Reveals Potential New Path for the Evolution of Multicellularity**
**Sri City, June 21, 2025** – A team of researchers at the National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS) in Bengaluru, in collaboration with scientists at the Georgia Institute of Technology, have discovered a surprising mechanism by which snowflake yeast, a multicellular form of the single-celled organism, overcomes nutrient limitations, potentially challenging conventional understanding of how multicellular life evolved.
Their findings, published in the June 2025 issue of *Science Advances*, reveal that snowflake yeast clusters, which grow larger than single-celled yeast due to a genetic mutation that prevents cells from separating, thrive in liquid solutions because of a physics-driven process called advection. Unlike animals, which have specialized systems to transport nutrients, Snowflake yeast induce fluid flow as they consume glucose and produce alcohol and carbon dioxide. The consumption of glucose reduces the density of the surrounding solution. The alcohol and carbon dioxide are also less dense, causing the fluid to rise, creating a flow that delivers nutrients to all cells within the cluster, even at larger sizes.
“The conventional understanding of multicellular evolution centers around the accumulation of genetic mutations over time,” said Vidyanand Nanjundiah, an evolutionary biologist and a professor at the Centre for Human Genetics. However, this research suggests that physical and chemical processes alone could have spurred the transition from unicellular to multicellular life before genetics came into play.
Researchers tested their hypothesis by observing the movement of dyed particles in the solution surrounding the yeast clusters. They found that as the clusters grew, the fluid flowed inward from the sides and upward, carrying nutrients. The flow was absent around dead clusters, indicating its dependence on the metabolic activity of living yeast.
The study offers an unconventional view of how major changes are initiated in evolution. According to Gautam Menon, a professor of physics and biology at Ashoka University, “the alternative model is temptingly attractive”
Shashi Thutupalli said, “Biology, in its much larger sense, can do it…our view of biology must extend beyond what we see in the natural world to novel phenomena that may occur only in the laboratory…they are genuinely a feature of livingness — of biology.” The research team is now investigating whether this mechanism can account for other evolutionary changes, such as the ability of organisms to move.
This discovery opens new avenues for understanding the fundamental principles that drive the evolution of life and highlights the importance of considering non-genetic factors in the emergence of complex biological systems.
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