Month: September 2022

DOWNSTREAM ERRORS. "An increase in apoptosis or a decreased ability to carry out anti-apoptosis is a prominent part of many diseases such as Alzheimer`s and Parkinson`s as well a number of pathophysiological processes such as ischemic strokes and heart attacks." http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167488910002764 View in LinkedIn

THERAPEUTIC TARGET. "Inappropriate apoptosis (either too little or too much) is a factor in many human conditions including neurodegenerative diseases, ischemic damage, autoimmune disorders and many types of cancer. The ability to modulate the life or death of a cell is recognized for its immense therapeutic potential." https://lnkd.in/eFmC7Ys View in LinkedIn

SO ENDS the mini-overview of apoptosis, the process of cell death run by ancient bacterial originated mitochondria in our cells, with a central role in health and disease. With such a complex and fine-tuned mechanism, it is also vulnerable to random gene insertions from horizontal gene transfer or gene mutations. It is just too sophisticated to suffer change easily and without consequences. View in LinkedIn

FUNCTIONAL FOSSILS. "Many animal genomes include bacterial and fungal genes acquired by horizontal gene transfer (HGT) during evolution. Scanning the genomes of fruit flies, nematodes, primates, and humans, among other animals, researchers found evidence to suggest that some of these horizontally acquired genes may even be functional." https://lnkd.in/eaMwmW6 View in LinkedIn

HRT OF OBESITY GENE. "The results supported analyses from previous studies that suggested human genes—such as FTO, the fat mass and obesity-associated gene—may have been horizontally acquired." https://lnkd.in/eaMwmW6 View in LinkedIn

TAMED FOREIGN GENES. "Several of the foreign genes in metazoan genomes encoded enzymes and likely had active biochemical functions. In three nematode and all the primate genomes analyzed, the researchers found that 95 percent of foreign genes contained introns, suggesting that these genes have been “domesticated” over time." https://lnkd.in/eaMwmW6 View in LinkedIn

DOMESTICATED FOREIGN GENES. "One classic example is the transfer of DNA from mitochondria and chloroplasts to the (eukaryotes host) nucleus after acquisition of these organelles by eukaryotes from ancient bacteria." Two gigantic cases of horizontal gene transfer to higher creatures and plants. Powering cells, controlling cell death. All by ancient bacteria. https://lnkd.in/eBQXvvd View in LinkedIn

EUKARYOTE TO EUKARYOTE HRT. "In animals, cases of eukaryotes-to-eukaryote HGT include: P elements between fruit fly species; antifreeze proteins between fishes; carotenoids biosynthesis genes from fungi to pea aphids; and trypanosome to human." Seaweed digestive genes in Japanese people. And much more. https://lnkd.in/eBQXvvd View in LinkedIn

CROSS SPECIES HORIZONTAL GENE TRANSFER. "Many instances of interdomain HGT involve transfers between bacteria and eukaryotes, with bacteria-to-eukaryote HGT being more frequent than transfers from eukaryotes-to-bacteria. So far, bacteria-to-animal transfers appear to be limited to invertebrate animals and are particularly prevalent from endosymbiotic bacteria to their host and from bacteria to asexual animals." https://lnkd.in/eBQXvvd View in LinkedIn

FIXING BAD GENES. "The main effect of Muller’s ratchet is the accumulation of slightly deleterious mutations, despite the fact that selection opposes their fixation in the population. Such mutation accumulation can sometimes lead to eventual extinction. This occurs if: recombination is absent, population size is finite, almost no back mutations occur, slightly deleterious mutation rates are high and purifying selection is too weak to remove all new deleterious mutations." https://lnkd.in/eAeNG6w View in LinkedIn