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CODONS. “The nucleotide triplet that codes an amino acid is called a codon. A codon consists of three nucleotides. Three nucleotides per codon are needed to code 20 amino acids; since there are 64 combinations of 4 nucleotides taken three at a time and only 20 amino acids, the code is degenerate (more than one codon per amino acid, in most cases).” https://lnkd.in/dTpzG-s View in LinkedIn

PURIFYING SELECTION. "In recent years, substantial empirical evidence has arisen, suggesting that these effects may be pervasive in humans and other organisms." https://lnkd.in/dy3iVS5 View in LinkedIn

DIVERSITY REDUCTION. "Purifying selection at many linked sites alters patterns of molecular evolution, reducing overall diversity and distorting the shapes of genealogies." https://lnkd.in/dy3iVS5 View in LinkedIn

"PURIFYING selection acts to remove deleterious mutations, and variation linked to these mutations, as they continually arise in a population. This leads to reduced genetic diversity at both selected sites and linked neutral sites. This effect, known as background selection, can significantly affect the patterns of diversity evident in sequence data." https://lnkd.in/dy3iVS5 View in LinkedIn

SO ENDS this two weekend glimpse into the impact of viruses on evolution. The impact of viruses on human evolution specifically, is the subject of a book by Lluis Villareal cited herein, written for the interested non-virologist, and a fascinating read. Future research will undoubtedly reveal more about these curious creatures that have so closely co-evolved with life. https://lnkd.in/dsD6pVn View in LinkedIn

SHAPE SPECIFYING FUNCTION. "Given that the molecular function of ncRNA may at least be partially conveyed through secondary or tertiary structures, mining evolutionary data for evidence of such features promises to increase the resolution of functional genomic annotations." (ncRNA = non coding RNA). http://nar.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2013/07/11/nar.gkt596.full View in LinkedIn

NON-CODING DNA. "Lack of conservation does not impute lack of function, as variation underlies natural selection." http://nar.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2013/07/11/nar.gkt596.full View in LinkedIn

SECONDARY STRUCTURES. "Evolutionarily conserved RNA secondary structures are a robust indicator of purifying selection and, consequently, molecular function." http://nar.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2013/07/11/nar.gkt596.full View in LinkedIn

EXON CONSERVATION. "Exonic splice enhancers' "abundance at exon ends explains, at least in part, why exon ends tend to be more conserved than exon cores." https://lnkd.in/drMDPh6 View in LinkedIn

SEA CHANGE. "The majority of the human genome is dynamically transcribed into RNA, most of which does not code for proteins. The once common presumption that most non–protein-coding sequences are nonfunctional for the organism is being adjusted to the increasing evidence that noncoding RNAs (ncRNAs) represent a previously unappreciated layer of gene expression essential for the epigenetic regulation of differentiation and development." https://lnkd.in/guFKNHU View in LinkedIn