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MUTATION AND REDUCTION. "There appears to be a negative correlation between mutation rate and genome size among RNA viruses." High is correlated with small. https://lnkd.in/eJEAMe9 View in LinkedIn

RARER DIRECTIONAL EVOLUTION. "Previous analyses of evolutionary patterns, or modes, in fossil lineages have focused overwhelmingly on three simple models: stasis, random walks, and directional evolution. Our expanded survey is consistent with its predecessors in finding that stasis and random walk modes are prevalent in paleontological sequences, and in suggesting that sustained directional evolution is infrequently observed." https://lnkd.in/emAzRkZ View in LinkedIn

REDUCED FUNCTION. "Regardless of the cause of genome reduction, lost coding potential eventually dictates loss of function. Consequences of reductive evolution in streamlined organisms include atypical patterns of prototrophy and the absence of common regulatory systems, which have been linked to difficulty in culturing these cells." https://lnkd.in/ebFkv5a View in LinkedIn

DOMINANT GENOME REDUCTION. "The results of evolutionary reconstructions for highly diverse organisms and through a wide range of phylogenetic depths indicate that contrary to widespread and perhaps intuitively plausible opinion, genome reduction is a dominant mode of evolution that is more common than genome complexification, at least with respect to the time allotted to these two evolutionary regimes." https://lnkd.in/egqWFZp View in LinkedIn

ABUNDANT STREAMLINING. "Bona fide adaptive genome streamlining appears to be a reality of evolution as well. Features of such streamlining are detectable in the genomes of the highly successful free-living organisms...(including) the most abundant cellular life forms on earth. Genome evolution of these highly successful life forms involves a drop in the overall complexity but an increase in information density." https://lnkd.in/egqWFZp View in LinkedIn

TWO REDUCTION ROUTES. "Both neutral and adaptive routes lead to genome reduction. Genome reduction in different life forms seems to have occurred via two distinct routes: (i) the neutral gene loss ratchet and (ii) adaptive genome streamlining." https://lnkd.in/egqWFZp View in LinkedIn

DISSOCIATION AT SCALE. "The relationship between genomic complexity and the complexity at various levels of the phenotype, from molecular to organismal, is far from being straightforward as it has become clear already in the pre-genomic era. Comparative genomics reinforced the complex relationships between the different levels of complexity in the most convincing manner by demonstrating the lack of a simple link between genomic and organismal complexities." https://lnkd.in/egqWFZp 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

EQUAL PULL. "Simplification could be an “an equal partner to complexification” in the evolution of eukaryotes." Or perhaps greater than equal. https://lnkd.in/egqWFZp View in LinkedIn

THE REAL BOSS. The Nobel Prize-winning biologist Joshua Lederberg once wrote that the “single biggest threat to man’s continued dominance on this planet is the virus.” One perspective. Another is that they have helped our species in countless ways. https://lnkd.in/e--W3GC View in LinkedIn