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MICROBIAL MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE. "It is now widely recognized that interconnected microbial communities drive matter and energy transformations in natural and engineered ecosystems, while also contributing to health and disease states in multicellular hosts." https://lnkd.in/dF2zqrE View in LinkedIn

IF A MARTIAN were to ask humans whether they had a comprehensive catalog of the creatures living on planet earth, the answer would be that we know much less than 1% of those inhabitants. This staggering ignorance of the most dominant destructive species on the planet speaks for itself. We instead invest our considerable resources in warfare and conflict. View in LinkedIn

FRAGMENT FROM NATURE contemplates a part of biological dark matter. Dark matter in biology includes the large portion of the genome of unknown function ("junk DNA") which was of ancient retroviral origin; the second dark matter in biology, and the subject of this essay, is that of the enormous amount of external genetic material that we know nothing about, supposedly viral or bacteriophage in origin. We do not need to explore other planets to find new frontiers. Our own is full of uncharted territory. View in LinkedIn

ASSUMPTIONS. “Throughout this article, we have drawn attention to areas of research needed to evaluate the two interdependent components of Stebbins’ SEDE hypothesis in flowering plants: the transition rate from selfing to outcrossing is zero; and self-fertilization is associated with a negative diversification rate.” http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/nph.12182/full View in LinkedIn

REVERSALS. “According to the SEDE hypothesis, transition rates from outcrossing to self-fertilization are unidirectional, with reversals to outcrossing untenable as a result of both genetic and environmental barriers. Generally, evolutionary reversals are considered to occur when populations revert exactly to an ancestral character state.” http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/nph.12182/full View in LinkedIn

MARINE VIRAL DARK MATTER. "This “viral dark matter” in metagenomes manifests as an inability to obtain functional or taxonomic annotations for most (63–93%) of surveyed sequence space, as well as an inability to taxonomically annotate the vast majority (>99%) of viral populations observed in nature." http://www.pnas.org/content/113/9/2436.full View in LinkedIn

UNKNOWN HITCHHIKERS. "20% of a nasal swab contains DNA sequences that are completely unknown to science today. In the gut this biological dark matter is 40-50%." https://itunes.com/apps/tedconferences/ted View in LinkedIn

"VIRUSES contain more genetic information than all of life in this planet." (Nathan Wolfe). https://itunes.com/apps/tedconferences/ted View in LinkedIn

PENALTY BOX. “Massive regain of inbreeding depression, particularly following hybridization events, may be a necessary prerequisite for reversals to partial or complete outcrossing.” http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/nph.12182/full View in LinkedIn

VIRAL IMPACT ON OUR EVOLUTION." Viruses were directly involved in differentiating our lineage from the chimpanzee lineage. Viruses were involved in all the major evolutionary transitions." (Professor Lluis Villarreal). This includes the evolution of the mammalian placenta. https://youtu.be/3Ms04x6MvMY View in LinkedIn