What is the smallest unit [of life] to be able to evolve?

Question

A question for Biology class. Although optional, I urge you to be specific with details and factual and accurate information, PLEASE.

Answer 1

if we are assuming viruses to be nonliving then the smallest living thing that can evolve are bacteria. The mycoplasmas are the smallest bacteria.

Answer 2

Depends on your definition of life. All life have genetic material and is thus able to evolve. I would say it is the bacteria that is the smallest unit of life (bacteria are smaller than cells. Mitochondria might have started out as a bacteria on it own and was then eaten by another bacteria. Only a mutation in the protomitochondria prevented it from being digested.) Multiresistant bacteria are bacteria that have evolved to be able to cope with penicillin for instance (maybe it is the devil conjuring up new multiresistant bacteria huh atcranes). Viruses are even smaller than bacteria. It takes about one year for nature to produce a new influenza virus that is able to trick our immune system and cause a new pandemic. That is also evolution but viruses are so small and they cannot reproduce on their own (one of the criterias defining a living thing) without a living cell to cannibalize that they are sometimes not considered living things. Just very complicated chemicals.

Proteins are also chemicals, even simpler than viruses, and not living things. Nor can DNA be called a living thing for the same reasons. It is "just" a huge molecule.

-edit-
LOL. I need better eyes. *Mmmphh*. Drats.. Nothing happened. I guess evolution works on VERY LONG TIMESCALES! But hopefully evolution will cancel out the stupidity genes...

Answer 3

Units f life do not evolve, their genetic material mutates, allowing their species to evolve. Viruses mutate, so do Prions, even smaller particles which cause Mad Cow Disease etc.

To the answerer who mentioned worrying about global warming, I would say this :
extinction is also a natural part of evolution. The planet does not care whether we live or die as a species. We will not be able to evolve as a species in time to save ourselves. Nor can we mutate into more resilient individuals, that would require some sort of supernatural being, or divine intervention. Which is also not going to happen. Nature will eventually reach a balance, with or without us in it.
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Answer 4

I had a little different take on the question than the other answers. I was always taught that an individual organism can only adapt to the environment, whereas a population is the smallest unit that can evolve.

Answer 5

Unit of life.. Life is made up of organic chemicals. Perhaps the Earth's primitive atmosphere (namely methane and ammonia) evolved into simple organic molecules and the organic molecules formed larger and larger ones. As molecules became larger and larger it formed simple cell systems. FOR BIOLOGY the talk about chemistry and the Earth before life is often ignored. However these things are possible in the world of Chemistry and Physics. Scientists have imitated the Earth's primitive conditions and placed those chemicals in a boiling flask. AMINO ACIDS were obtained.

Answer 6

Technically, the smallest unit of life able to evolve is the gene. Individual genes evolve, and in some cases they can even evolve independently of the whole organism.

For example, a recent comparison of human and chimpanzee genomes show that the genes residing on the X-chromosome began down separate evolutionary paths around 1.2 million years later than most of the other genes. (Citation below; you can find the issue in any university library and most public libraries.)

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v441/n7097/abs/nature04789.html

Answer 7

The smallest unit of life is the cell, according to the cell theory. Can a single cell evolve? Yes, of course. We know that bacteria evolve. So the answer is the cell.

Answer 8

I did Bio in college and just got done with one semester and evolving involves adapting to things and also mutations can cause things to evolve. So basically any form of life can evolve in one shape or another. Bacteria evolves because it can now fight off some antibiotics we have used aganist them. They are fairly small so just do some research and you'll be able to figure it out.

Answer 9

What do you mean by unit of life?
I know the smallest animal in the world is the Water Bear.
It is a little four-legged animal that lives in moss.

Answer 10

Sorry that I can't put much detail, but I heard somewhere that Microbes are one of the smallest units of life on earth, if not the smallest.