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ORIGIN OF EUREQA. “Eureqa is descended from Lipson’s work on self-contemplating robots that figure out how to repair themselves. The same algorithms that guide the robots’ solution-finding computations have been customized for analyzing any type of data." https://lnkd.in/dEC3j_P View in LinkedIn

GENE TRANSFER AGENTS. "Perhaps the most striking showcase for dedicated vehicles of HGT are the gene transfer agents (GTAs), defective prophages that form virus particles in which they package apparently random fragments of the bacterial chromosome rather than the phage genome." (HGT = horizontal gene transfer). https://lnkd.in/dSemZpD View in LinkedIn

BURIED PATTERNS IN LARGE DATA SETS. "The program was unveiled in April, when it used readouts of a double-pendulum to infer Newton’s second law of motion and the law of conservation of momentum. It could be an invaluable tool for revealing other, more complicated laws that have eluded humans." (Eurequa). https://lnkd.in/dEC3j_P View in LinkedIn

CARGO GENES. "Both types of elements are transferred by the conjugation molecular machinery (type IV secretion systems) and typically carry ‘cargo’ genes unrelated to the transposon life cycle. Thus, these selfish elements are at the same time vehicles for HGT that mediate microbial adaptation by introducing new genes into the recipient genomes." (HGT = horizontal gene transfer). https://lnkd.in/dSemZpD View in LinkedIn

SO ENDS this two weekend sampling of horizontal gene flow. Evidence has accumulated that this gene mixing mechanism has played a vastly important role in the evolution of all life forms on earth, even those whose gene mixing strategies are largely vertical. Microorganisms, primarily bacteria and viruses, and mobile genetic elements, have played the driving role in horizontal and promiscuous gene sharing, driving evolution in previously unexpected ways. View in LinkedIn

PLASMIDS. "Conjugative plasmids encode proteins required for autonomous replication, whereas integrative and conjugative elements (ICEs, or conjugative transposons) typically replicate while integrated into the host chromosome but have the ability to excise and form plasmid-like molecules." https://lnkd.in/dSemZpD View in LinkedIn

FACT NOT THEORY. "Much like evolution itself, extensive HGT in the microbial world is a fact and not a ‘theory’. However, understanding the routes, causes, and consequences of horizontal gene flow as well as constructing the actual, quantitative theoretical framework of this pervasive process will keep many biologists busy for decades to come." (HGT = horizontal gene transfer). https://lnkd.in/dSemZpD View in LinkedIn

TRADITIONAL METHODS. "Bacterial and archaeal conjugation (prokaryotic sex) is a mechanism of genetic material transfer between microbial cells that combines features of selfish genetic elements and devices for gene transfer." https://lnkd.in/dSemZpD View in LinkedIn

EVOLVABLE AND ADAPTABLE? "Both theoretical models and tantalizing experimental clues suggest that HGT is essential for microbial survival and could be an evolvable, adaptive capacity mediated by dedicated vehicles originating from domesticated selfish elements. Yet this concept runs afoul of the distrust of ‘evolution of evolvability’ that is deeply ingrained among biologists." (HGT = horizontal gene transfer). https://lnkd.in/dSemZpD View in LinkedIn

DOMINANT PROCESS. "There is no reasonable doubt anymore that HGT is a dominant process in microbial evolution that generally occurs at a high rate. Moreover, the relevance of ‘horizontal’ as applied to gene flow is validated by the strong evidence of the existence of a central vertical, tree-like trend in genome evolution." (HGT = horizontal gene transfer). https://lnkd.in/dSemZpD View in LinkedIn