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FUNDAMENTAL IDENTITY. “So what really marks the distinction of us from are nearest relative are the viruses that colonized our respective genomes. The viruses were directly involved in differentiating our lineage from the chimpanzee lineage. In that context, it’s not junk, it’s who we are.” https://lnkd.in/guhpmyR View in LinkedIn

FORK IN THE ROAD. “Long ago, when viruses integrated into primates, they began redrawing their blueprint.” Beneficial changes accumulated and primates gave rise to a new species, homo sapiens. “And as both species went their own ways, both species were continually colonized by their own unique viruses.” https://lnkd.in/guhpmyR View in LinkedIn

JUNK DNA. Our genomes are 99% similar to primates, but it is retroviruses that make humans unique, in junk DNA. 93-95% of human DNA is junk DNA. “We are predominantly junk. But junk DNA is the remains of ancient retroviruses.” https://lnkd.in/guhpmyR View in LinkedIn

OUR GENOMES. “Designated by some to be the graveyards of endogenous retroviruses.” https://lnkd.in/guhpmyR View in LinkedIn

OUR ROOTS. “Retroviruses can help to explain how viruses evolved into human beings.” https://lnkd.in/guhpmyR View in LinkedIn

VIRAL IMPACT. “How has this rewiring affected our species?” https://lnkd.in/guhpmyR View in LinkedIn

SPECIAL CASE OF THE FIG. "Mechanisms ensuring the evolutionary stability of dioecious fig–pollinator mutualisms, in which female fig trees engage in pollination by deceit resulting in zero reproductive success of pollinators that visit them, are poorly understood." https://lnkd.in/e8CyHKf View in LinkedIn

SEX RATIO SKEW. "Data suggest that males will generally be less sensitive to increased aridity than co-occurring females and, consequently, extreme male-biased sex ratios are possible in a significant number of populations. The effects of male-biased sex ratios are likely to cascade to dependent community members, especially those that are specialized on one sex." https://lnkd.in/e_imfDq View in LinkedIn

VULNERABILITIES. "Dioecious species may be especially vulnerable to climate change given that they often exhibit spatial segregation of the sexes, reinforced by physiological and morphological specialization of each sex to different microhabitats. In dimorphic species, the overexpression of a trait by one gender versus the other may become suppressed in future climates." https://lnkd.in/e_imfDq View in LinkedIn

BRYOPHYTE REPRODUCTION. "Roughly half of the species of bryophytes have separate sexes (dioecious) and half are hermaphroditic (monoecious). This variation has major consequences for the ecology and evolution of the different species." https://lnkd.in/e45yqVZ View in LinkedIn