Like our immunity system gets stronger against usual viruses and bacterias, can we evolute to grow more immune to radiation during generations? (I know it’s different things and responses, it’s just an example)
If yes, how?
If not, why?
In: Biology
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deinococcus_radiodurans#:~:text=Deinococcus%20radiodurans%20is%20a%20bacterium,Guinness%20Book%20Of%20World%20Records.
Here is an example of a species that has extreme resistance to radiation.
All species have to balance the amount of energy they put into repairing DNA and preventing mutations with the energy they put into other things, like growing, hunting, reproducing, and defending territory. The bacterial species described above reproduces incredibly slowly because it puts so much energy (calories) into the processes of repairing its DNA. In any circumstance where DNA damage is rare, it won’t do well compared to other bacteria. The other bacteria will grow faster, reproduce faster, and use up the environment’s resources to make more of themselves. But in an extreme environment like a desert, where there is a lot of solar radiation and other things (like dehydration) that damage DNA, all the regular bacteria will have their chromosomes destroyed beyond their ability to repair, while slow-growing Deinococcus Radiodurans will carefully and methodically repair all the DNA damage so that it can thrive.
All living things evolve to be able to do the right level of DNA repair for the environment they live in.
If the Earth were suddenly bombarded with 10,000x as much radiation, all of us big creatures would die out, and organisms like Deinococcus Radiodurans that possess ultra-high fidelity DNA repair mechanisms would all survive. If the radiation levels stayed high, then over the next billion years, their decendents would take over the world and give rise to new multi-cellular ‘plants’ and ‘animals’ that grow slow and spend a lot of energy on DNA repair.
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