Parallelism, evolutionary

See also Astrobiology Evolution, convergent Evo-hitiorr, divergent Evolution, evittarce of Evolutiar, parallel Evolutionary charge, rate of. 

Degnan, P. H., Lazarus, A. B., and Wernegreen, J. J. (2005) Genome sequence of Blochmannia pennsylvanicus indicates parallel evolutionary trends among bacterial mutualists of insects. Genome Res. 15, 1023-1033. 

An improved parallel evolutionary algorithm [84] and basin hopping combined with vibrational modes [50] are examples of successful approaches to the problem of global optimization of water clusters. However, these methods are not able to find the lowest energy geometry for systems with more than 30 water molecules. A detailed comparison of results for each cluster size can be found in our publication that describes an application of minima hopping to water clusters [41]. 

Parallel Evolutionary Algorithms for Optimizing the Unifac Matrix on Workstation Clusters... 

All ligands, including mineral oxide dusts, have different affinities for Fe " and Fe, with values of stability constants for ferrous ion often being considerably less than those for ferric ion. These dissimilarities offer a possible mechanism to remove ferric ion from the chelant (i.e., the particle and fiber). Parallel evolutionary development may account for similarities in the methods employed by all living organisms in the transport of iron. Bacteria, phytoplankton, and... 

In terms of evolutionary biology, the complex mitotic process of higher animals and plants has evolved through a progression of steps from simple prokaryotic fission sequences. In prokaryotic cells, the two copies of replicated chromosomes become attached to specialized regions of the cell membrane and are separated by the slow intrusion of the membrane between them. In many primitive eukaryotes, the nuclear membrane participates in a similar process and remains intact the spindle microtubules are extranuclear but may indent the nuclear membrane to form parallel channels. In yeasts and diatoms, the nuclear membrane also remains intact, an intranuclear polar spindle forms and attaches at each pole to the nuclear envelope, and a single kinetochore microtubule moves each chromosome to a pole. In the cells of higher animals and plants, the mitotic spindle starts to form outside of the nucleus, the nuclear envelope breaks down, and the spindle microtubules are captured by chromosomes (Kubai, 1975 Heath, 1980 Alberts et al., 1989). 

Parallel refinement of multiple potential solutions is the method adopted by evolutionary algorithms. In this chapter, we discover why, when tackling optimization problems, it can be more productive to spread our efforts across a group of solutions rather than to concentrate on one. 

In recent years, developments in high-throughput screening inspired many pharmaceutical companies to focus and rely on combinatorial chemistry, especially massive parallel synthesis, to find new lead structures. The employed chemistry is often simple and the concept depends on sheer numbers for success. The main research areas were heterocyclic and peptide chemistry, and the resulting structures often lacked complexity and diversity, and most importantly the chance to utilize the evolutionary advantage of natural products with their privileged structures. 

A parallel example of larval detoxification abilities being retained through evolutionary time is found in swallowtail butterflies (Miller and Feeney, 1989). 

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