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SIMPLEST DEFINITION. "E. Mayr: “We shall regard as alive any population of entities which has the properties of multiplication, heredity and variation.” https://lnkd.in/dEj5vVD View in LinkedIn

OMNE VIVUM. "Pasteur demonstrated that life does not arise in areas that have not been contaminated by existing life. Pasteur's empirical results were summarized in the phrase Omne vivum ex vivo, Latin for "all life [is] from life".” https://lnkd.in/eJXtXQy View in LinkedIn

SO ENDS this first weekend on plant dormancy. This phenomenon is not limited to plants. It is a mechanism to allow the organism to wait for favorable conditions for growth and reproduction, by being largely quiescent. We still know relatively little about the phenomena. Next weekend we will look at the genetic findings behind dormancy. View in LinkedIn

EPIGENETIC VERNALIZATION. "Cell division appears to only be required to stabilize the epigenetic-mediated vernalization response in Arabidopsis. Moreover, a stable versus transient vernalization response differentiates monocarpic Arabidopsis from its relative, polycarpic Arabis alpina." https://lnkd.in/duazcMZ View in LinkedIn

DISCREPANCY. "The quiescence of cells during chilling-induced dormancy release has been suggested as a possible discrepancy between vernalization and dormancy release." https://lnkd.in/duazcMZ View in LinkedIn

VIRAL FOOTPRINT. "Caetano-Anolles and Nasir analyzed the protein folds of 5,080 organisms—3,460 viruses and 1,620 cells from other organisms representing every branch of the tree of life. What they found was huge: 442 protein folds were shared between cells and viruses along with 66 folds that were unique to viruses." https://lnkd.in/eH7hpgG View in LinkedIn

NON-INTUITIVE. "For about 100 years, the scientific community has repeatedly changed its collective mind over what viruses are. First seen as poisons, then as life-forms, then biological chemicals, viruses today are thought of as being in a gray area between living and nonliving: they cannot replicate on their own but can do so in truly living cells and can also affect the behavior of their hosts profoundly." https://lnkd.in/dHuVTgq View in LinkedIn

SCANT FEW. "Viruses clearly evolve—ask any medical professional—and they have tremendous diversity as well (There are less than 4,900 viruses described so far, but estimates have the total number of viral species at more than a million)." https://lnkd.in/eH7hpgG View in LinkedIn

RAPID EVOLUTION. "But viruses themselves also evolve. New viruses, such as the AIDS-causing HIV-1, may be the only biological entities that researchers can actually witness come into being, providing a real-time example of evolution in action." https://lnkd.in/dHuVTgq View in LinkedIn

DRIVERS OF GENETIC INNOVATION. "The huge population of viruses, combined with their rapid rates of replication and mutation, makes them the world’s leading source of genetic innovation: they constantly “invent” new genes. And unique genes of viral origin may travel, finding their way into other organisms and contributing to evolutionary change." https://lnkd.in/dHuVTgq View in LinkedIn