altruistic bacteria putting humans to shame

richard dawkins, in his 1970s must-read the selfish gene, brings up altruism as an apparent paradox, if we take evolution at face-value. of course, he goes on to describe how it is that what we humans naively perceive as 'helping someone in need without expectation of reward', is really a mere behavior instantiated in genes bringing some selective advantage to its beholder.

two cool articles in the last two weeks have addressed this issue in single and multi-cell organisms. first, a group from tubingen, germany showed that a single nucleotide polymorphism changed cheating cells into helper cells. the scientists instantly marketed it in LA, where blondes by the thousands flocked to the product promised to end relational woes. after a quick biology lesson, those still awake left dejected.

second, this week a group from u arizona published an article suggesting how a gene promoting altruism could get into the gene pool initially. since do-gooders don't seem to have much selective advantage, this had been a mystery for a while. in volvox, a self-organizing multi-cellular creature, a gene called RegA shuts down reproductive functions in all but 16 lucky cells in the organism...kind of like our somatic and germ cells. for example, one of your retinal ganglion cells won't be reproducing anytime soon, but it keeps on the lookout for that special someone with whom some of your...other... cells will enjoy the pleasure of reproducing. so, these researchers found that a homologue of RegA found in single-cells is used to shut down extraneous functions when the going gets rough. the story goes that the activity of this gene, which was originally favored for some other function, was exploited for the sake of multicellular reproduction... one of the earliest and most obvious forms of altruism.

of course, the scientists make sweeping claims suggesting that this is how humans do it too. two of my favorite:

"In evolutionary terms, Nedelcu said, there may be no fundamental difference between altruism in Volvox and the generosity that inspires people to give, say, to charity."

and even better:

"Moreover, in tough times, people often come together; so do many bacteria."

now if they'd hurry up and figure out the gene for where i left my keys yesterday...