Altruistic suicide in organisms helps relatives by providing nutrients to kin
Friday, February 28, 2014 - 07:02
in Biology & Nature
The question of why an individual would actively kill itself has been an evolutionary mystery. Death could hardly provide a fitness advantage to the dying individual. However, a new study has found that in single-celled algae, suicide benefits the organism’s relatives. Researchers have known that when an organism commits suicide by digesting up its own body, it releases nutrients into the environment that can be used by other organisms. Now they've proven that these nutrients can only be used by relatives. In fact, the nutrients inhibit the growth of non-relatives, so not only does suicide benefit relatives, it can also harm competitors.
