LATEST VEGAN NEWS of these algae, they found that one set of genes stood out. Why, you ask? Because the algae had apparently “stolen” the genes from bacteria, and not just any bacteria: These live in soil today, helping plants survive potentially damaging stresses such as drought. They even help today’s plants make seeds and spores that can remain dormant (alive but not growing) for months or even years.
How Did Plants Happen? At Last, We May Have an Answer
What was there about these bacterial genes in the two Zygnematophyceae species that made them able to help plants grow and thrive? Well, what two factors do plants need most to grow and thrive?
by Diana O. Potter
You’re right: sunlight and carbon dioxide. What the Researchers Think Happened
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s vegans, we depend on plants for our food, our environment — our very existence. And we’re so used to having them around, we don’t question their existence. They’re just here, like us. But, like everything else on Earth, including us, they didn’t have to arise from the primordial soup. And for years scientists have labored to discover how they did. Now they believe they may know. And if you think human evolution is impressive, wait ‘til you hear this. A World Without Plants Becomes Our Earth Because of Them For billions of years, as our Earth cooled and oceans and land masses formed, there were no living things, including plants, on the barren, rocky land. Yet today, after their beginnings some 500,000 years ago, so-called land plants account for almost all the Earth’s biomass — a fancy term for living organisms — including some 500 billion tons of carbon, more than four times the amount accounted for by all other living things, combined. There’s more: Land plants are also the reason we have soil to grow them in, oxygen to breathe, and animals who can live on land because they were able to develop from ancient life forms in the seas (including us!).
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Scientists have known for a long time that land animals evolved from ancient sea creatures. They naturally suspected that land plants developed the same way, but despite years of research, they were unable to find out how — until now. On November 14, 2019, researchers at the University of Alberta in Canada and the University of Cologne in Germany reported they believe they’ve cracked the mystery, using the science of genetics. Solving the Mystery — With a Surprising Discovery First you need to know that once plants covered the land, they left a lot of fossils that might have offered the scientists help in tracing land plant evolution. But the very earliest land plants weren’t documented well enough to be helpful. So according to an article in The New York Times, the scientists decided to work with living organisms, especially their DNA, to find the answers they were seeking.
Billions of years ago, according to the researchers, earlier forms of these bacteria, which lived in the ocean and were able to capture sunlight and carbon dioxide, appear to have been acquired by ancient amoeba-like organisms that evolved over millennia into algae. Fine, you say. But how did the bacterial genes get into the DNA of the Zygnematophyceae algae, energizing millions of years of land plant evolution? Answer: The researchers aren’t yet sure, but they make a strong case for the following explanation: The algae formed a carbohydrate-rich sponge-like coat, which soaks up water. Bacteria fed on the coat carbohydrates, in return producing vitamins that may have benefited the algae. During this process, genes from the bacteria may have entered the algae’s DNA. Makes sense, but proving it will be difficult and take a long time, the researchers note.
Algae soon took center stage. The researchers discovered that two species of a freshwater algae group with a very long name — Zygnematophyceae — had some of the key genes land plants need to grow and thrive. When the researchers sequenced the complete genomes
Issue 56 - January/February 2020
Light & fluffy Dairy-free Keto-friendly Low sugar & fat free No GMOs
The Rancher Advocacy Program Pioneers Groundbreaking Solutions for Farmers and Ranchers in Crisis
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No preservatives No artificial colors 40yr old family recipe
armers and ranchers are in crisis due to climate change and economic chaos. The Rancher Advocacy Program of Rowdy Girl Sanctuary leads with the answers.
The Rancher Advocacy Program (RAP), a five-year initiative of Rowdy Girl Sanctuary, Inc. is the first and only enterprise providing the knowledge of their Rancher Advisory Council working together with industry experts to transition cattle ranches and animal farms away from animal agriculture into viable veganic, compassionate businesses. The Rancher Advisory Council is comprised of business experts in their fields who are also former ranchers or members of former ranching families. Rowdy Girl Sanctuary announces the dates of its first annual RAP Summit, slated for September 18-20, 2020 in Austin, Texas. The RAP Summit is the first of its kind to bring cattle ranchers, animal farmers, plant-based industry experts, manufacturers, activists, and environmentalists together to debate and determine solutions to the imminent concerns around global food production, the economy, animal protection, and our climate.
Rowdy Girl Sanctuary, which has been featured nationally on CBS Evening News, Animal Planet, ABC’s More in Common and other nationally syndicated shows, is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation and vegan farm animal sanctuary in the heart of Texas. As Rowdy Girl Sanctuary moves into the new year, their evolution from farm animal rescue and sanctuary to a state-of-the-art, animal care facility, a plant-based/environmental resource education center and endowment for ranchers and farmers transitioning begins. Rowdy Girl Sanctuary inspires other ranchers to experience a paradigm shift, and, through the Rancher Advocacy Program, provides them the expertise and tools to evolve away from the cruelty of factory farming to a financially stable business. Rowdy Girl Sanctuary was founded by Renee King-Sonnen and Tommy Sonnen in 2014. Kip Andersen, Save Movement, Jane Unchained News, Miyoko’s, VegFund, Egg-Truth, Womxn Funders in Animal Rights, Vegan Investors, Effect Partners, Pollution.tv, It’s Jerky Y’all, Free From Harm, Cowspiracy, Waking Justice and Agriculture Fairness Alliance join Rowdy Girl Sanctuary in support of the Ranchers Advocacy Program and in launching this trailblazing conference.
That’s okay with me, and likely with you, too. We’re just glad the plants are here in such abundance, variety, and power to nourish the planet, right?
For more information on the Rancher Advocacy Program go to http://rancheradvocacy.org.
But it is nice to know at least something of how that may have happened. Stay tuned!
Rowdy Girl Sanctuary as featured on CBS Evening News with Steve Hartman, On the Road, https://www.cbsnews.com/news/cattle-ranchers-vegan-wife-turns-ranch-into-animal-sanctuary/
VEGWORLD Magazine
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For more information on Rowdy Girl Sanctuary, go to http://rowdygirlsanctuary.org.
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Issue 56 - January/February 2020
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