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SOMATIC HYPERMUTATION. "In response to an assault by foreign organisms, peripheral B cells can change their antibody affinity and isotype by somatically mutating their genomic DNA." https://lnkd.in/dUEkqmr View in LinkedIn

THE BIG ONE. "How could a chemical sludge spontaneously become a rose, even with billions of years to try?" https://lnkd.in/dv77eVE View in LinkedIn

SIMPLICITY TO COMPLEXITY (AGAIN). “Our genomes encode a limited number of antibody genes, which are insufficient to generate antibodies against the wide variety of foreign pathogens encountered from the external environment. SHM enables our immune system to expand the limited diversity encoded within our genomes to the billions of antibody specificities required to defend ourselves against external pathogens." (SHM = somatic hypermutation). https://lnkd.in/dQ6QXSG View in LinkedIn

INSCRUTABLE. "So, at least for now, the cell is beyond our ability to understand it." https://lnkd.in/dv77eVE View in LinkedIn

SIX BILLION MUTATION SPOTS. "There are 23 pairs of chromosomes in the human genome. If you counted the number of positions -- A's, T's, G's and C's -- you would have three billion positions across those 23 chromosomes. And because each chromosome is a part of a pair, you can multiply that number by two, for a total of six billion places where a mutation can happen." https://lnkd.in/djANYvQ View in LinkedIn

VERY REMARKABLE. "How remarkable is life? The answer is: very. Those of us who deal in networks of chemical reactions know of nothing like it." (George M Whitesides). https://lnkd.in/dbsPXy3 View in LinkedIn

COEVOLVING CLUSTERS OF GENES. "Mutations are complex, occur in clusters, occur at different rates within and between genes (= “hot spots” in the genome); and networks of genes can coevolve (e.g., interacting ion-channel genes), thus increasing and maintaining informational complexity, decreasing uncertainty, and expediting evolution (for detailed discussions on computational methods and theoretical implications." https://lnkd.in/dXty-vx View in LinkedIn

ABUNDANT LIFE FORMS. "We are surrounded by uncountable varieties of life, especially by multitudes of different types of living cells; we thus have many examples of different forms of life." https://lnkd.in/dv77eVE View in LinkedIn

QUANTUM BIOLOGY EXPLANATION. "Adaptive mutations may be generated by environment-induced collapse of the quantum wave function describing DNA in a superposition of mutational states." https://lnkd.in/dxHFHJ7 View in LinkedIn

DIRECTED MUTATION. "The central tenet, that mutations occur randomly, has recently been challenged by the finding of the phenomenon termed adaptive or directed mutation." https://lnkd.in/dxHFHJ7 View in LinkedIn