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FUNCTIONALITY. "However, if some TEs are in fact functionally relevant to their hosts, as we have shown here for the case of TE-derived miRNAs, then their divergence may have important evolutionary implications." (TE = transposable elements). http://www.genetics.org/content/176/2/1323 View in LinkedIn

"EPIGENETICS is an effective tool for expanding the informational content of a given nucleotide sequence with multiple meanings/functions representing experiences in historical contexts in real-life worlds." https://lnkd.in/eg6uePF View in LinkedIn

TRANSPOSABLE ELEMENT DRIVERS. "In terms of evolution, this means that the greatest differences between eukaryotic genomes will correspond to TE sequences. In this sense, TEs can be considered as drivers of genome diversification. This may be uninteresting if TEs serve only to replicate themselves and do not play any role for their host genomes as the selfish DNA theory of TEs holds." (TE = transposable elements). http://www.genetics.org/content/176/2/1323 View in LinkedIn

GEMOME AND EPIGENETICS. "The genotype contains the whole blueprint for the phenotype. The interesting thing is that the variety of parts that constitute the phenotype throughout its developmental stages as well as its regulation is coded in the genotype together with epigenetic markings." https://lnkd.in/eg6uePF View in LinkedIn

ADAPTATIONS AND DISEASE. "Accumulating evidence indicates that gene regulatory changes often contribute to species-specific adaptations as well as to within-species variation in complex phenotypes, such as interindividual variation in susceptibility to disease." https://lnkd.in/dFv6Tsi View in LinkedIn

RNA REGULATORY GENES. "The percentage of coding for such proteins in the human 3 billion base pairs is only 1.5%, however. All the other DNA contains non-coding RNAs (up to 45%) and non-coding areas with unknown functions (55%) which I suggest represent non-coding RNAs of regulatory functions. This means in all organisms we can find the genotype and the encoded phenotype." https://lnkd.in/eg6uePF View in LinkedIn

TYPES OF HORIZONTALITY. "In nature, horizontal evolution can occur through species hybridization in eukaryotes, lateral gene transfer in bacteria, recombination and reassortment in viruses, viral integration in eukaryotes, and fusion of genomes of symbiotic species (e.g., mitochondria). These horizontal genetic exchanges create incompatibilities that mischaracterize the species tree." http://www.pnas.org/content/110/46/18566.full View in LinkedIn

SONG OF DARWIN. "The more I study nature, the more I become impressed […] that the contrivances and beautiful adaptations [acquired through natural selection] transcend in an incomparable degree [those] which the most fertile imagination of the most imaginative man could suggest with unlimited time at his disposal." http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960982214003881 View in LinkedIn

FRAGMENT FROM NATURE continues from last weekend on the theme of viruses. The most successful lifestyle for viruses is that of benign long-term cohabitation with the host, rather than pathenogenicity, which tends to have a boom-and-bust profile. What is deeply intriguing is that these creatures have become integral to vast populations of genomes, and have become integral for their host evolution. Are they the ghost in the machine, the hidden hand behind the wheel? Increasingly, it is hard to think otherwise. View in LinkedIn

SELECTIVE PRESSURES. "Variation in TF binding might underlie concerted changes in a large number of supporting regulatory mechanisms that determine chromatin state and accessibility. These inferences, based on functional genomic variation data, are consistent with independently observed evidence of strong selective pressures on TF binding motifs, second only to the conservation of protein-coding genes." (TF = transcription factor). https://lnkd.in/dFv6Tsi View in LinkedIn