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ORDERLY SELECTION. “Natural selection can be defined as the process by which random evolutionary changes are selected for by nature in a consistent, orderly, non-random way.” Contemplate slowly. https://lnkd.in/dMpUKUA View in LinkedIn

HORIZONTALITY AND PROXIMITY. "The effect of spatial structure on the evolution of pathogens has had some experimental support which is, however, based on experiments with obligate killing and strictly horizontally transmitting pathogens." https://lnkd.in/dvcWSUt View in LinkedIn

DEFINITION. “Natural selection is the differential survival and reproduction of individuals due to differences in phenotype." (AKA: Differential survival = death: some survive (briefly enough to breed) and some die early; reproduction of the survivors; due to a bell curve of differential talents). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_selection View in LinkedIn

DEFINITION. “Natural selection is the differential survival and reproduction of individuals due to differences in phenotype." (AKA: Differential survival = death: some survive (briefly enough to breed) and some die early; reproduction of the survivors; due to a bell curve of differential talents). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_selection View in LinkedIn

NATURAL SELECTION is at the heart of everything that matters, or so it seems. Researchers have devoted an incredible effort to describe it, and it has even been proposed as being anticipatory for conditions it has never seen. But what is this mystical force? Is it not just the population effects of competition between species, between individuals, between sexes, between instars, and the searing effects of death? Death is at its heart, and without death, natural selection does not thrive. View in LinkedIn

DISCRIMINATION LACKING. "One ultimate goal of genomics is to read the code—to be able to predict variation in gene expression levels based on the nucleotide sequence—and this goal remains challenging. The main difficulty is that many changes in TF binding do not seem to result in measurable changes in gene expression levels, and we do not yet know how to distinguish between binding events that affect gene expression and those that do not." (TF = transcription factor). https://lnkd.in/dFv6Tsi View in LinkedIn

SO ENDS this contemplation of the immensely successful strategy of viruses, the remains of these creatures which litter our genomes and drive evolutionary novelty. Viruses are everywhere. In every habitat, no matter how hostile. In every creature. And in virtually every genome in some form or another. It is preposterous that we have been so slow to recognize that they are very much alive. They simply are an extreme case of outsourcing. View in LinkedIn

RAPID MICROBE EVOLUTION. "In a decade bacteria can produce 200,000 generations — about the number of generations of humans there have been since our lineage split from that of chimpanzees. So it’s hardly surprising that in less than a human lifespan we’ve seen the evolution of new diseases such as HIV and numerous antibiotic-resistant bacteria." https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn13640-evolution-myths-evolution-produces-perfectly-adapted-creatures/ View in LinkedIn

ANTIGENIC EVOLUTION. "Swine influenza A/H3N2 is known to evolve antigenically at a rate that is six times slower than that of the same virus circulating in humans, although these viruses' rates of genetic evolution are similar." https://lnkd.in/dDjCWve View in LinkedIn

HITCHHIKING. "Reassortment between segments occurs slowly enough, relative to the actions of positive selection, that genetic hitchhiking causes beneficial mutations in HA and NA to reduce diversity in linked neutral variation in other segments of the genome." https://lnkd.in/dDjCWve View in LinkedIn