Month: September 2022

UNRESOLVED ANSWER. “However, we found no evidence for this, and frequently paralogs within the same genome are closely related. We would argue that this does not mean that we should discount the hypothesis that cif paralogs accumulate within the same genome because they encode bidirectionally incompatible CI factors.” (CI = cytoplasmic incompatibility). https://lnkd.in/dXjWp9f View in LinkedIn

HOMOLOGY. “Given the relative homogeneity of cifA domains and the similarities of these additional cifB domains with known toxins and eukaryotic-like ankyrin proteins, it is tempting to hypothesize that they are linked to the modification function by interacting with the host rather than the binding to cifA.” https://lnkd.in/dXjWp9f View in LinkedIn

TESTS FOR THE HYPOTHESIS. “It would be interesting to test whether these domains allow manipulation of reproduction across a broader host range. Interestingly, one of these domains, the ovarian tumor domain (OTU), is also found in a toxin involved in male-killing induced by the symbiont Spiroplasma poulsonii, raising the possibility that some domains could be involved in multiple forms of reproductive manipulations.” https://lnkd.in/dXjWp9f View in LinkedIn

CONCLUSION. “Our study illustrates the dynamic evolution of CI genes and highlights the high rates of gene loss and horizontal gene transfer. Further functional analysis will open new avenues of research and allow us to reconstruct the full evolutionary history of CI.” (CI = cytoplasmic incompatibility). https://lnkd.in/dXjWp9f View in LinkedIn

REMAINING QUESTIONS. “In particular, the identification of the insect factors targeted by the sperm modification may soon allow us to study the coevolution of cif genes with the insect reproductive system. Finally, a deeper analysis of divergent cif homologs found outside Wolbachia should allow us to address questions around the deep evolutionary origin of CI and may reveal novel functions of these genes.” (CI = cytoplasmic incompatibility). https://lnkd.in/dXjWp9f View in LinkedIn

SO ENDS this article on the genetics of an extraordinary and hugely successful evolutionary strategy that hijacks the host reproductive system. Parasites are known to manipulate host behavior in equally extraordinary ways, causing them to suicide in order to perpetuate the parasite; there seem few limits to how deeply life forms can be hacked, a sobering thought. https://lnkd.in/dXjWp9f View in LinkedIn

THE BIG BANG AND MORE. “Theorists nonetheless ponder the possible existence of other kinds of atoms—not just additional elements yet undiscovered, but atoms built differently from the ones we know on Earth.” (Brilliant summary articles). https://lnkd.in/dqtx5yd View in LinkedIn

He’s at it again: he loves to be under blankets and pillows and gently thumped from above. View in LinkedIn

TRANSITION EXPLAINED. “I have demonstrated that a smooth quasi-classical transition from an evaporating black hole to a white hole is consistent with a spacetime with the global causal structure of Minkowski spacetime, and does not require any large quantum effects outside regions of Planckian spacetime curvature. Whether this is actually consistent with quantum gravity remains an open question.” https://lnkd.in/dUKnus8 View in LinkedIn

KEY ASSUMPTION. “In this paper I assume that almost all of the negative energy associated with Hawking "partners" remains inside the white hole until it interacts with the rebounding matter that formed the black hole.” https://lnkd.in/dUKnus8 View in LinkedIn