Category Archives: Evolution

July 20, 2017 by Elizabeth Howell , Astrobiology Magazine The researchers examined the biological processes of E.coli, a common bacteria. Credit: NIAID

A common bacteria is furthering evidence that evolution is not entirely a blind process, subject to random changes in the genes, but that environmental stressors can also play a role.

A NASA-funded team is the first group to design a method demonstrating how transposonsDNA sequences that move positions within a genomejump from place to place.

The researchers saw that the jumping rate of these transposons, aptly-named "jumping genes," increases or decreases depending on factors in the environment, such as food supply.

"This is a new window into how environment can affect evolution rates," said Nigel Goldenfeld, director of the NASA Astrobiology Institute for Universal Biology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. "We can measure evolution rates for the first time, and we can see evolution acting at the molecular level."

Thomas Kuhlman, a physicist at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, said bacteria species can also play a role in jumping rates, as well as the environment.

"The activity of these transposal elements is not uniformly random; it's not just a pile of cells," he said.

Kuhlman and Goldenfeld recently published a paper on the research, "Real-time transposable element activity in individual live cells," in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The research was led by Neil Kim, a physics graduate student at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and also included work from fellow students Gloria Lee, Nicholas Sherer and Michael Martini.

True colors

Goldenfeld studies the role of the environment on evolution, while Kuhlman focuses on the biological processes of E. coli, a common bacteria that lives in the digestive tracts of humans and animals and the cause of infections by way of contaminated feces.

The two researchers came up with a novel approach to watching the movement of jumping genes by engineering an E. coli that expresses a fluorescent protein when the transposons "jump" out of a genome. Because the cell lights up when this occurs, the researchers were able to record the cells that jump more than others.

"The cells light up only when a transposon jumps," Goldenfeld said. "So we can see how often they jump, and when they jump, and where they jump from."

Goldenfeld's team also constructed a computer simulation of the jumping activity that was able to rule out random activity as the primary reason for jumping. Once they compared the simulation with the laboratory trials, it was clear that the transposons were not jumping randomly. Goldenfeld said the findings shed more light on the mechanisms of evolution.

A fundamental assumption of evolution has been that mutations and other instabilities in the genomes randomly occur in an organism as a 'blind" evolutionary force, and those that are beneficial to the cell lead to reproductive success. Another possibility, less accepted by biologists, is that the environment prompts the cell or organism to mutate in order for the cell to prosper better. These adaptive mutations, or stress-induced mutations, occur in response to stressors in the environment.

"Our work shows that the environment does affect the rate at which transposons become active, and subsequently jump into the genome and modify it," Goldenfeld said. "Thus the implication is that the environment does change the evolution rate. What our work does not answer at this point is whether the transposon activity suppresses genes that are bad in the particular environment of the cell. It just says that the rate of evolution goes up in response to environmental stress.

"This conclusion," he added, "was already known through other studies, for certain types of mutation, so is not in itself a complete reversal of the current dogma. We hope that future work will try to measure whether or not the genome instabilities that we can measure are adaptive."

Kuhlman said he has hopes of future research on more complex organisms.

"The next step is operating in yeast, as a very simple eukaryotic cell. Then eventually much further down the road, we'll get [the process] working in mammalian or human cells."

The research is not only useful for understanding the origins of life, but also uncovering situations where cells undergo rapid mutations. One possible application could be routing out the pathways of cancer, which happens when cells abnormally grow and cause problems with the rest of the body.

Goldenfeld added that the findings also have clear implications to astrobiology.

"One of the things that astrobiology is concerned with is the interaction between the environment and the rate of evolution," he said. "Our work showed for the first time that there are environmental influences on the rate of transposon activity, because we could literally measure the effect. We did this quantitatively and compared it with theoretical predictions that assumed that transposon activity was random. We could show that the activity is not random at all."

The NASA Astrobiology Institute funded the research.

Explore further: Watching 'jumping genes' in action

More information: Neil H. Kim et al. Real-time transposable element activity in individual live cells, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2016). DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1601833113

This story is republished courtesy of NASA's Astrobiology Magazine. Explore the Earth and beyond at http://www.astrobio.net .

"Jumping genes" are ubiquitous. Every domain of life hosts these sequences of DNA that can "jump" from one position to another along a chromosome; in fact, nearly half the human genome is made up of jumping genes. Depending ...

Nature is full of parasitesorganisms that flourish and proliferate at the expense of another species. Surprisingly, these same competing roles of parasite and host can be found in the microscopic molecular world of the ...

By inserting an amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS)-linked human gene called TDP-43 into fruit flies, researchers at Stony Brook University and Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory discovered a potential role for 'transposons' in ...

The vesper bats are the largest and best-known common family of bats, with more than 400 species spread across the globe, ranking second among mammals in species diversity.

The genome is not a fixed code but flexible. It allows changes in the genes. Transposons, however, so-called jumping genes, interpret this flexibility in a much freer way than "normal" genes. They reproduce in the genome ...

The human genome shares several peculiarities with the DNA of just about every other plant and animal. Our genetic blueprint contains numerous entities known as transposons, or "jumping genes," which have the ability to move ...

(Phys.org)A large international team of researchers has conducted a genetic analysis and comparison of the world's biggest cats to learn more about their history. In their paper published on the open source site Science ...

Optimization for self-production may explain key features of ribosomes, the protein production factories of the cell, reported researchers from Harvard Medical School in Nature on July 20.

For mice and men, a strength in one area of Darwinian fitness may mean a deficiency in another. A look at Olympic athletes shows that a wrestler is built much differently than a marathoner. It's long been supposed that strength ...

Grasshopper mice (genus Onychomys), rodents known for their remarkably loud call, produce audible vocalizations in the same way that humans speak and wolves howl, according to new research published in Proceedings of the ...

Three new species of toads have been discovered living in Nevada's Great Basin in an expansive survey of the 190,000 square mile ancient lake bottom. Discoveries of new amphibians are extremely rare in the United States with ...

Cutting through the ocean like a jet through the sky, giant bluefin tuna are built for performance, endurance and speed. Just as the fastest planes have carefully positioned wings and tail flaps to ensure precision maneuverability ...

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A simple bacteria reveals how stress drives evolution - Phys.Org

Edward Parks, who plays Steve Jobs, and the Santa Fe Opera Chorus in The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs. Ken Howard/Courtesy of the Santa Fe Opera hide caption

Edward Parks, who plays Steve Jobs, and the Santa Fe Opera Chorus in The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs.

Mark Campbell is one of the most prolific and celebrated librettists in contemporary American opera. But, as he recently told an audience at the Guggenheim Museum, not everyone thought his latest project was a good idea.

"I've had a number of socialist friends of mine saying, 'Why would you write an opera about Steve Jobs? He was the worst capitalist!' " he said.

Campbell's response to those naysayers? " 'Reach in your pocket you probably have an iPhone there.' "

Jobs has been the subject of movies and books, and now the Apple co-founder's life has also become the stuff of opera. A decade after Apple released its first smartphone, The (R)evolution Of Steve Jobs premieres Saturday on the stage of the Santa Fe Opera.

Even Campbell was initially skeptical of the idea, which came from 40-year-old composer Mason Bates. Bates was convinced that in Jobs' "complicated and messy" life, he'd found the right subject for his very first opera.

"He had a daughter he didn't acknowledge for many years; he had cancer you can't control that," Bates says. "He was, while a very charismatic figure, quite a hard-driving boss. And his collisions with the fact that he wanted to make everything sleek and controllable yet life is not controllable is a fascinating topic for an opera."

The (R)evolution Of Steve Jobs shifts back and forth in time over the course of 18 scenes. Its fragmented, non-linear narrative was a deliberate choice by Campbell and Bates, who wanted to reflect Jobs' personality and psyche. "Steve Jobs did have a mind that just jumped from idea to idea to idea it was very quick," Campbell says.

Bates also created a different "sound world" to match each character. Jobs, for instance, played guitar and spent much of his life dealing with electronics, and so he "has this kind of busy, frenetic, quicksilver world of acoustic guitar and electronica," Bates explains. On the other hand, he says, Jobs' wife, Laurene Powell, inhabits a "completely different space, of these kind of oceanic, soulful strings."

Other characters include Steve Wozniak, Jobs' business partner, and the Japanese-born Zen priest Kobun Chino Otogawa, who led Jobs to convert to Buddhism and served as a mentor for much of his life. Otogawa's "almost purely electronic" sound world makes use of prayer bowls and processed Thai gongs.

As often happens when his compositions premiere, Bates will be seated among the orchestra musicians, triggering sounds and playing rhythms from two laptops. And before you ask: Yes, they are Mac computers. (Bates is quick to note he's not sponsored.)

Even the set echoes Jobs' creations. After a prologue in the iconic garage where Jobs' ideas first took shape, the garage walls explode into six moving cubes with screens that look a lot like iPhones. "We're doing something called projection mapping, where all of the scenic units have little sensors, so the video actually moves with them," opera director Kevin Newbury explains. "We wanted to integrate it seamlessly into the design because that's what Steve Jobs and Apple did with the products themselves."

Jobs's design sensibilities were enormously influenced by Japanese calligraphy including the ens, a circle that depicts the mind being free to let the body create. Bates says that also figures in the opera's title: The (R)evolution Of Steve Jobs, with the capital "R" in parentheses.

"Of course, there's the revolution of Steve Jobs in his creations and his devices. There's also the evolution from a countercultural hippie to a mogul of the world's most valuable company," Bates points out. "And there's the revolution in a circle of Steve Jobs as he looks at the ens, this piece of Japanese calligraphy, and finds that when he can kind of come full circle, he reaches the kind of completion that he sought so long in his life."

That's the side of Jobs this new opera explores: the way his life was marked by the struggle to find the balance between life's imperfections and his drive to create the perfect thing.

Originally posted here:

Sing Different: Steve Jobs' Life Becomes An Opera - NPR

Acorn ants are tiny. Theyre not the ants youd notice marching across your kitchen or swarming around sidewalk cracks, but the species is common across eastern North America. In particular, acorn ants live anywhere you find oak or hickory trees: both in forests and in the hearts of cities.

Cities are a microcosm of the changes that are occurring at a planetary scale on an urbanized Earth.

Thats why theyre so interesting to Sarah Diamond, a biology professor at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland. Were comparing this little forest island within a city to traditional forest habitats, she says. Specifically, she and her colleagues are looking at how well city ants can tolerate higher temperatures compared to their rural cousins. The experiment is made possible by whats known as the urban heat island effect, which describes the tendency of the built-up infrastructure of cities think heat-absorbing concrete and asphalt, for example to create a hotter environment than less developed areas.

The urban island effect is several degrees Celsius warming as you go from rural habitats to urban habitats, Diamond says. A few degrees may not seem like a huge difference intuitively, but its on par with the amount global temperatures are expected to increase over the next decades.

The impact of climate change is something we cant simulate easily in natural ecosystems, but the artificial environment of cities may provide needed clues. We can take advantage of this unnatural experiment to see how organisms are responding to altered climatic regimes, Diamond says.

She and her team collected ant colonies from various sites in the city of Cleveland and in the surrounding countryside of Ohio. They then compared how colonies from each site adapted to the temperature conditions for both urban and rural environments. No matter how they mixed and matched temperatures, Diamond says, the urban ants always have higher heat tolerance, and they always lose their cold tolerance compared to the rural ants.

And because ants born in the lab only grow up in that environment, researchers have found that they seem to experience real genetic change, not just a shift in behavior, says Ryan Martin, one of Diamonds collaborators at Case Western. You can separate out those acclimatory effects, compared to those effects that are divergent between urban and rural ants [due to] genetic change. In other words, ants born from urban parents have higher tolerance to heat than ants born in rural environments, even when those newborn ant babies have never experienced the same conditions as their parents.

Diamond and her colleagues see the same effect in ants from places with measurably different climates, including Cincinnati, Ohio; Knoxville, Tennessee; and northern Florida. Theyre also expanding their research to include terrestrial isopods (the common critters known variously as pillbugs, sowbugs, and roly polies, among other names). The ultimate goal is to help answer a profound question: Can we predict how well some species will adapt to climate change based on how well they do in cities?

Cities do a lot more than generate heat, of course. They contaminate the soil and air, alter patterns of water drainage and sunlight exposure, radically increase noise pollution, and break up habitats. In the process, they routinely force plants, animals, and microbes to adapt or disappear. And studies have shown that the time scale for these environmental disruptions is astoundingly short compared with the usual rates of change in the natural world.

Cities are a microcosm of the changes that are occurring at a planetary scale on an urbanized Earth, says Marina Alberti, professor of urban design and planning at the University of Washington. Humans in cities are changing the rules of natures game. Empirical evidence is showing that we selectively determine which species can live in cities and cause organisms to undergo rapid evolutionary change.

A number of researchers have become interested in urban ecology because of those relatively fast changes. Most North American cities are less than a century or two old, and the number of humans living in cities has jumped dramatically over the last 100 years. Even though thats a blink of an eye compared with the history of Earth, eco-evolutionists like Diamond are finding a wealth of measurable differences between urban organisms and members of the same species living in undeveloped ecosystems. Their experiments are beginning to reveal how quickly evolution can act under pressure.

Charles Darwin began On the Origin of Species by talking about artificial selection: how humans have bred animals and plants to bring out some features and suppress others. Any number of species have been domesticated, from dogs to pigeons to corn, changing from their wild form into something different. Artificial selection can be extremely rapid, simply by controlling how domesticated species reproduce.

Urban evolution, on the other hand, is still controlled by natural selection. What separates it from normal natural selection is that humans are the indirect source of the selection pressures. Our actions restrict nesting spaces by chopping down trees, paving over places for plants to sprout, and driving out some predators while bringing in new ones like cats and dogs. And of course, we raise temperatures by replacing vegetation with concrete, building with heat-absorbing roofs, and introducing greenhouse gases such as ozone from engines.

Our findings of rapid change of many plants and animals demonstrates the power of natural selection even in our cities, says Alberti. Many species will continue to go extinct, but we show that others are evolving the necessary strategies and physical characteristics to coexist with humanity. Understanding the role we play in planetary eco-evolution will provide us with the information to make better decisions and build more sustainable urban settlements.

But how large and rapid are these changes? And how can we separate fundamental changes in organisms makeup due to evolution from behavioral shifts? For instance, city ants havent evolved into a distinct species from country ants, even if they still exhibit measurable genetic shifts. Urban-dwelling birds, on the other hand, sing at higher pitches to be heard over the noises of the city. But its unclear if that behavior is a genetic change, or if their offspring would resume normal levels of singing if they were raised in the country.

In a recent study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Alberti and her colleagues found more than 1,600 cases from around the world in which urbanization has produced measurable evolutionary effects. Those effects include changes in the size of seeds or offspring, what kinds of food animals eat and where they nest, and how species interact with each other. The cases include plants, invertebrates (insects and so forth), and a range of vertebrates, from fish to birds.

Because of rapid urbanization, these changes occurred on the scale of centuries or less. By showing the genetic differences between urban and rural acorn ants, Diamonds experiments in Cleveland revealed that the shift must have occurred since the city began its modern period of growth. Thats roughly 100 years, or about 20 generations of acorn ant queens. And the shift might have been even faster, since were only seeing the end result, not the incremental changes since Cleveland began to change into a modern city.

Andrew Hendry of McGill University, one of Albertis coauthors on the recent study, says he suspected that the urban heat island effect is less significant than other problems city-dwelling organisms face, such as habitat loss or the breaking up of habitats into small discontinuous pieces. Even so, he added, that doesnt mean temperature isnt an important factor: When it comes to specific things the temperatures affecting, it can give us some guidelines about how fast can things evolve, what types of organisms can evolve faster or slower, or respond strongly or weakly in respect to temperature.

In other words, an organism that evolves rapidly in the city might do better in general when trying to adapt to a warming world. All the weedy, invasive species, like cabbage white butterflies, are doing fine, Diamond says. Thats little consolation, though. Just as cities contain a shadow of the biodiversity of the rural landscape they replace, climate change could result in a cascade of species loss.

Just as cities contain a shadow of the areas former biodiversity, climate change could result in a cascade of species loss.

What you find is urban populations have lower [genetic variation], says Martin. Presumably, that means theyve used up some of that variation in evolving, but it also might mean theyve lost some of their ability to respond [to environmental changes].

Diamonds ant lab is dominated by a row of environmental growth chambers. They resemble refrigerators, but their interiors can run the temperature gamut from hot summer days to cold winter nights. She opened one and presented a cup designed to hold urine samples, familiar to anyone who has undergone medical or drug tests. No ones peeing in these, she says. Were putting acorn ants in them.

Inside the cup was an entire living colony of ants crawling around their acorn nest. Each insect is smaller than one eighth of an inch long, with a body so light orange-brown in color it is almost invisible against the acorn. Acorn ant colonies usually have fewer than 100 tiny workers, which explains how they can all fit into a single nut resting in the cup.

Most species arent as easy to study as acorn ants. Theyre either too big, reproduce too slowly, or dont survive well under lab conditions. However, by focusing on these tiny creatures and how they survive in living urban laboratories, we may be starting to understand how vulnerable all species are in the uncontrolled experiment known as climate change.

Matthew R. Francis is a physicist, science writer, public speaker, educator, and frequent wearer of jaunty hats. He blogs at Galileos Pendulum.

Original post:

What City Ants Can Teach Us About Species Evolution And Climate Change - Undark Magazine

July 21, 2017 by Pierre Quvreux, The Conversation Credit: Tom/Flickr

Since 2012, genetic engineering has been revolutionised by CRISPR-Cas9 gene-editing. The technology is based on an enzyme from a bacterial cell, whose work is to cut the information storing system of living beings, DNA, at one predefined location. It generates a gap within the DNA. Then, a new sequence for example, a gene from another organism can be included.

Such a simple and inexpensive technology has made the creation of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) much easier. More interesting, including the gene of the Cas9 enzyme to the genome made the cell able to do by itself this cut-and-insert process. The technique, called "gene drive", can propagate a new gene in the whole population of organisms in a few generations. Once the introduced gene is installed in the population, one may call them GMOs. One of the most promising application would be to eradicate mosquitoes by spreading mutations that cause infertisity, but as explained in a 2017 article in the journal Nature, can be thwarted by evolution itself.

Arms race with bacteria

This is not the first time that evolution itself makes life hard for genetic engineering and biotechnology. One of the most important revolutions in human health was the industrial production of antibiotics. After World War II, western countries used them to fight human diseases but also to promote industrial agriculture and breeding. A basic rule of living beings' development is that species can ingest only a limited quantity of food and must face trade-offs between three main biologic functions: growth, reproduction and survival. This is true for domestic species as well but the existing trade-offs might not be to the liking of industries. Allocating more resources to one function inevitably leads to reduced performances of the other two.

Farmers had long before noticed that castrating young bulls turned them into steer that grew and fattened up faster. In the same way, the use of antibiotics decreased the stimulation of the immune system and enabled breeders to select fast-growing but less-resistant animals. Combined with industrial breeding relying on high densities of genetically similar individuals, the massive use of antibiotics is required to protect them against disease. In France, 40% of produced antibiotics are consumed by animals. Combined with the human consumption, bacteria have been exposed to a huge selective pressure or ways to survive antibiotics. Thus, many strains developed antibiotic resistances. Now, the emergence of multi-resistant infectious bacteria strains is a signficant concern in public health policies.

The fragility of homogeneity

A similar situation is observed in in agriculture. Increasing mechanisation and specialisation turned the landscape of polyculture windbreaks into endless fields of monoculture. Such a biomass of a few poorly genetically divers plants cultivars is a bonanza for pathogens and insects: if one gets infected, the next one is likely to be feeble too. In addition, crops were selected to have the highest yield, supported by a massive use of fertiliser and pesticides. Thus, the new cultivars are sensitive plants and poor competitors compared to weeds. The industrial agriculture was championed by GMOs, especially in North and South America. Crops producing toxins that killed caterpillars or were resistant to herbicide such as glyphosate were only efficient for a few years. Like bacteria, targeted insects and weeds evolved resistances in one or two decades.

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And the resilience of nature

By the same way, using the new CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing technology to modify or eliminate wild populations will not work forever and can also disturb the ecosystem. The large size of the targeted population, their short life cycle and the heavy selective pressure applied lead to huge adaptive advantages of resistant mutants that quickly spread in the population. Ecosystems are the outcome of billion years of evolution of complex networks of interacting species, thus building disease or pests managements technologies and policies without taking into account evolution must must fail in the long term.

Explore further: Gene drives likely to be foiled by rapid rise of resistance

Journal reference: Nature

Provided by: The Conversation

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

A study in fruit flies suggests that existing approaches to gene drives using CRISPR/Cas9, which aim to spread new genes within a natural population, will be derailed by the development of mutations that give resistance to ...

Scientists at UC Berkeley and UC Riverside have demonstrated a way to edit the genome of disease-carrying mosquitoes that brings us closer to suppressing them on a continental scale.

Researchers are exploring the use of the revolutionary gene-editing tool CRISPR-Cas9 to fight human disease and agricultural blight. But a study from Indiana University has found several challenges to the method's use in ...

A "gene drive" occurs when a specific gene is spread at an enhanced rate through an animal or plant population.

In recent years, scientists, clinicians and pharmaceutical companies have struggled to find new antibiotics or alternative strategies against multi-drug resistant bacteria that represent a serious public health problem. In ...

(Phys.org)A team of researchers affiliated with several institutions in South Korea has found a way to introduce an enzyme into a cell using the CRISPR technique without having to use a bacterial carrierthe result, ...

Three new species of toads have been discovered living in Nevada's Great Basin in an expansive survey of the 190,000 square mile ancient lake bottom. Discoveries of new amphibians are extremely rare in the United States with ...

(Phys.org)A large international team of researchers has conducted a genetic analysis and comparison of the world's biggest cats to learn more about their history. In their paper published on the open source site Science ...

Grasshopper mice (genus Onychomys), rodents known for their remarkably loud call, produce audible vocalizations in the same way that humans speak and wolves howl, according to new research published in Proceedings of the ...

Cutting through the ocean like a jet through the sky, giant bluefin tuna are built for performance, endurance and speed. Just as the fastest planes have carefully positioned wings and tail flaps to ensure precision maneuverability ...

Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, have discovered how Cas1-Cas2, the proteins responsible for the ability of the CRISPR immune system in bacteria to adapt to new viral infections, identify the site in ...

Instead of having more children, a grandmother may pass on her genes more successfully by using her cognitive abilities to directly or indirectly aid her existing children and grandchildren. Such an advantage could have driven ...

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When evolution and biotechnologies collide - Phys.Org

Mashable

A visual journey through the evolution of the influencer Mashable That's the tension today's social media celebrities have created. And it's not just marketers, brands, and stars who feel confused. It's everyday customers as well. Especially when it comes to who to trust. In a sense, there's nothing new about ...

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A visual journey through the evolution of the influencer - Mashable

The Carolina Panthers open training camp on July 26 at Wofford College in Spartanburg, South Carolina. Heres a closer look at the Panthers' camp:

Top storyline: As quarterback Cam Newton goes, so go the Panthers. When Newton had an MVP season in 2015, the Panthers went to the Super Bowl. When he had statistically the worst season of his career in 2016, the team struggled and missed the playoffs after capturing three consecutive NFC South titles. Newton had offseason surgery to fix a partially torn rotator cuff, so training camp will be the first big test to see if the problem has been corrected. The Panthers added more weapons in first- and second-round draft picks Christian McCaffrey and Curtis Samuel. Their presence will give the 6-foot-5 quarterback more opportunities to get rid of the ball quicker and take fewer hits ... and to give him fewer reasons to run. Its an evolution for Newton and the offense, and how well that adaptation process goes will largely determine how well the Panthers do this season.

QB depth chart: Newton is coming off shoulder surgery, and the Panthers want their franchise quarterback to run less in order to safeguard his long-term health. Beyond that, nothing has changed from the past three seasons. Derek Anderson remains entrenched as the veteran and capable backup. Joe Webb is back as a third quarterback/wide receiver/special-teams player.

Bubble watch: The message that place-kicker Graham Gano needed to step up came on the third day of the draft, when the Panthers selected Harrison Butker out of Georgia Tech in the seventh round. It was the first time the Panthers drafted a place-kicker. Gano missed several big kicks that had a drastic impact on last seasons 6-10 record, and he made just 78.9 percent of his field goals.

That rookie could start: Taylor Moton. The second-round pick out of Western Michigan might be a long shot to start at right tackle, but with the future of Michael Oher uncertain and 2015 fourth-round pick Daryl Williams still somewhat unproven, Moton might get an opportunity. He impressed coaches during offseason workouts with his ability to play right and left tackle. Moton could be a year away, but if he impresses when the pads are on, hell have a chance to start now.

Kelvin Benjamin's weight: Much, probably too much, was made of the 6-foot-5 wide receiver being overweight at the start of offseason workouts. The last time that happened was two years ago, and Benjamin reported to training camp in the best shape of his career. He was arguably the MVP of that 2015 camp before suffering a season-ending knee injury. If Benjamin can return to that form and be pushed by the other receiving weapons the Panthers have added, he could be in for a big season.

Contract issues: In 2016, Greg Olsen became the first tight end in NFL history to record three consecutive seasons with 1,000 receiving yards. He wants a restructured deal to reflect that accomplishment, even though his current contract doesnt expire until after the 2018 season. Outside linebacker Thomas Davis, 34, entering the final year of his deal, also would like an extension. These are two key players and leaders, so look for the front office to do all it can to keep them happy.

For daily updates at camp, check out the Carolina Panthers clubhouse page.

Continued here:

Evolution of Cam Newton, offense focus for Carolina Panthers in ... - ESPN (blog)

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer is buying the assets of Evolution Media and rolling them into MGMs television division led by Mark Burnett, president of the Television Group & Digital.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Founder and CEO Douglas Ross will be president of the acquired business and Alex Baskin, executive vice president of programming anddevelopment, will become Evolutions president of programming and development.

Evolution Media produced series including The Real Housewives of Orange County, The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills and Vanderpump Rules for Bravo, as well as other series for E! network, CBS, NBC and Disney Channel.

Those productions will join MGM Televisions current series including Survivor (CBS), The Voice (NBC), Shark Tank (ABC), Jamie Foxxs Beat Shazam (FOX) and Steve Harveys FUNDERDOME (ABC), along with scripted series Fargo (FX), The Handmaids Tale (Hulu), Vikings (HISTORY) and the upcoming Get Shorty (EPIX).

Doug and Alex have been creating and producing hit series for decades. These guys have talent and drive and will help our MGM Television hit machine to continue to grow and grow, said Burnett in a statement.

After 30 years of being fiercely independent, we couldnt be more proud and excited to join forces with the dynamic, creative and supportive leadership team at MGM. We look forward to working with Gary, Mark and Barry to supercharge Evolution and to write the next chapters in the companys history with them, said Ross in a statement.

RELATED: MGM to spend more than $1B to buy out Viacom and Lionsgate in Epix acquisition

Earlier this year, MGM dropped about $1 billion to buy the whole of Epix from co-owners Viacom and Lionsgate.

"The addition of EPIX provides MGM with a premier distribution platform that complements our strong stable of new and library content in both film and television. The acquisition creates increased revenue diversity, new opportunities for growth, and earnings accretion for the benefit of stockholders," said Gary Barber, chairman and CEO of MGM, in a statement.

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MGM acquires 'Real Housewives' studio Evolution Media - FierceCable

MGM buys Evolution Media to expand Mark Burnett's TV division L.A. Biz MGM said Evolution will operate as Evolution Media, an MGM company, with founder and Chief Executive Douglas Ross as president of the acquired business and executive vice president of programming and development. Alex Baskin will become its ...

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MGM buys Evolution Media to expand Mark Burnett's TV division - L.A. Biz

Barron's

Evolution Mining: Gold Miner Delivers Strong 4Q Barron's Evolution Mining shares last traded up 1.4% at AUD2.18. The stock is up roughly 3% this year. The rise in the value of the Australian dollar to a two year high against the greenback has seen the Australian dollar price of gold fall from a high of AUD1 ...

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Evolution Mining: Gold Miner Delivers Strong 4Q - Barron's

Now Playing The Evolution of Jared Padalecki's Hair on Supernatural

With 12 seasons of Supernatural under his belt, Sam Winchester (Jared Padalecki) has changed quite a bit. More importantly, his hair has evolved over the years. No longer the fresh-faced kid with a short cut we met back in Season 1, he's let it grow out for the most part--not that we're complaining!

In honor of Padalecki's birthday today, we've put together a compilation of his best hair looks throughout the show's lengthy run so far. Which one is your favorite?

Season 13 is still months away so perhaps this video or the knowledge that it's currently in production will offer some sort of reprieve. The cast and crew recently shared some neat behind-the-scenes photos on social media, including a clean-shaven Jensen Ackles who finally got rid of his hiatus beard.

Supernatural premieres Oct. 12 at 8/7c on The CW.

(Full Disclosure: TVGuide.com is owned by CBS, one of The CW's parent companies.)

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Happy Birthday, Jared Padalecki: See the Evolution of His Supernatural Hair - TV Guide