Year: 2022

META-GROUPS. "Proteins can also work together to achieve a particular function, and they often associate to form stable complexes." https://en.m.wikibooks.org/wiki/Principles_of_Biochemistry/Amino_acids_and_proteins View in LinkedIn

SO ENDS this bird's eye view of our protein-constructed world. From simple building blocks to almost endless complexity. Enough of a Lego set to build a cellular world with huge variety, flexibility, and options to evolve. Proteins are the fundamental building backbone of life on earth, in all their dazzling variety and beauty. View in LinkedIn

WHY KEEP JUNK? "Considering that the human body carries out ~10,000 billion cell divisions in a lifetime, the replication and maintenance of this viral junk heap requires a considerable amount of energy and resources. So why do we keep it around?" http://schaechter.asmblog.org/schaechter/2014/06/retroviruses-the-placenta-and-the-genomic-junk-drawer.html View in LinkedIn

JUNK HAS USES. "Probably for the very reason that nearly every household has a junk drawer: weak purifying selection (read, lack of motivation to clean up), combined with the hunch that “this stuff might come in handy someday.” https://lnkd.in/e6q2jTP View in LinkedIn

PROFOUND EFFECT. "It appears that as a whole these sequences, once regarded as “junk DNA,” have had a profound effect in shaping our genome." Hardly junk. https://lnkd.in/eW3mbzE View in LinkedIn

SOME FUNCTIONALITY. "Over the years, researchers have found evidence to suggest that junk DNA may provide some form of functional activity. Some lines of evidence suggest that fragments of what were originally non-functional DNA have undergone the process of exaptation throughout evolution. Exaptation refers to the acquisition of a function through means other than natural selection." https://lnkd.in/eZHPYqA View in LinkedIn

"EXAPTATION is a term used in evolutionary biology to describe a trait that has been co-opted for a use other than the one for which natural selection has built it. For example, the earliest feathers belonged to dinosaurs not capable of flight. So, they must have first evolved for something else. Researchers have speculated early feathers may have been used for attracting mates or keeping warm. But later on, feathers became essential for modern birds’ flight." https://lnkd.in/eW-nNHx View in LinkedIn

MOLECULAR EXAMPLE. "Research is also uncovering molecular examples of exaptation. For instance, genetic material left behind by viruses now plays an important role in mammalian pregnancy. While an exaptation is co-opted from another or no apparent use, an adaptation is constructed by natural selection for its current use." http://www.livescience.com/39688-exaptation.html View in LinkedIn

MOLECULAR EXAMPLE. "Research is also uncovering molecular examples of exaptation. For instance, genetic material left behind by viruses now plays an important role in mammalian pregnancy. While an exaptation is co-opted from another or no apparent use, an adaptation is constructed by natural selection for its current use." http://www.livescience.com/39688-exaptation.html View in LinkedIn

OTHER EXAPTATION EXAMPLES. "Evolution is littered with examples of opportunism. Hosts infected by viruses found new uses for the genetic material the agents of disease left behind; metabolic enzymes somehow came to refract light rays through the eye’s lens; mammals took advantage of the sutures between the skull bones to help their young pass through the birth canal." https://lnkd.in/ehYPdVy View in LinkedIn