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REDUCTIVE EVOLUTION. "The mitochondria, the ubiquitous energy-transforming organelles of eukaryotes, and the chloroplasts, the organelles responsible for the eukaryotic photosynthesis, are the ultimate realizations of bacterial reductive evolution. However, such reductive evolution, its paramount importance for eukaryotes notwithstanding, was considered to represent a highly specialized trend in the history of life." https://lnkd.in/egqWFZp View in LinkedIn

VAST GENE LOSSES. "It has been well known for decades that the evolution of numerous parasitic and symbiotic organisms entails simplification rather than complexification. In particular, bacteria that evolve from free-living forms to obligate intracellular parasites can lose up to 95% of their gene repertoires without compromising the ancestral set of highly conserved genes involved in core cellular functions." https://lnkd.in/egqWFZp View in LinkedIn

EVOLUTION AS COMPLEXITY ACCUMULATION. "Recent evolutionary reconstructions challenge this notion. Two notable examples are the reconstruction of the complex archaeal ancestor and the intron-rich ancestor of eukaryotes. In both cases, evolution in most of the lineages was apparently dominated by extensive loss of genes and introns, respectively." https://lnkd.in/egqWFZp View in LinkedIn

DAVID ATTENBOROUGH. "We are a plague on the Earth...Either we limit our population growth or the natural world will do it for us, and the natural world is doing it for us right now." http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/earth/earthnews/9815862/Humans-are-plague-on-Earth-Attenborough.html View in LinkedIn

THE COMPLEXIFICATION PARADIGM. "The textbook depiction of the evolution of life on earth is that of an ascent toward a steadily increasing organismal complexity: from primitive protocells to prokaryotic cells to the eukaryotic cell to multicellular organisms to animals to humans, the crowning achievement of the entire history of life." https://lnkd.in/egqWFZp View in LinkedIn

ACCUMULATING COMPLEXITY. "For if there is any purpose legible at all in the millennia of human history, it is in the unflagging persistence with which we add to the complexity of the universe." This has been the pervasive mantra since Darwin. https://lnkd.in/edrARjk View in LinkedIn

FRAGMENT FROM NATURE follows on from the past weekend series on convergent evolution, but this time focuses on reductive evolution, where there is a tendency to simplify. We always assume that complexification is the norm in evolution, and that simpler creatures are less evolved. It is becoming clear that neither assumption is true. View in LinkedIn

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ANIMAL GROWTH ENHANCER. "60% of antibiotic use in nursery-age pigs is for disease prevention or growth promotion. ~60% of antibiotic use in grower/finisher pigs is for growth promotion." HGT in animal guts fosters antibiotic resistance genes." Regulatory agencies have completely betrayed society. https://lnkd.in/eEaXmjy View in LinkedIn

ALIEN PERSPECTIVE. "If an alien landed on Earth and studied the biology here, it might justifiably conclude that viruses run the planet." Viruses or bacteria. https://lnkd.in/e9h9zTt View in LinkedIn