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MUTANT SWARMS. "It is an unquestionable fact that RNA virus populations exist as swarms of mutant genotypes. Such enormous variability is an unavoidable consequence of the lack of exonuclease proofreading activity of the virus-encoded RNA polymerases with, in some cases, the added contribution of recombination." https://lnkd.in/e9KGgbm View in LinkedIn

TOTAL DNA ON PLANET. "We estimate the total amount of DNA in the biosphere to be 5.3 × 10(31) (±3.6 × 10(31)) megabase pairs (Mb). This quantity corresponds to approximately 5 × 10(10) tonnes of DNA. This DNA is equivalent to the volume of approximately 1 billion standard (6.1 × 2.44 × 2.44 m) shipping containers." 50 billion tons of DNA! https://lnkd.in/ewABXeK View in LinkedIn

PLANET AS SUPERCOMPUTER. "The biosphere can be visualised as a large, parallel supercomputer, with the information storage represented by the total amount of DNA and the processing power symbolised by transcription rates. In analogy with the Internet, all organisms on Earth are individual containers of information connected through interactions and biogeochemical cycles in a large, global, bottom-up network." https://lnkd.in/ewABXeK View in LinkedIn

BIODIVERSITY AS GENETIC INFORMATION. "Using available DNA sequencing and genome data, combined with large-scale surveys of biomass, we present an alternative way of quantifying and understanding biodiversity. This is accomplished by adopting an information view of biodiversity, in which the total amount of information in the biosphere is represented by the available amount of DNA." https://lnkd.in/ewABXeK View in LinkedIn

HUMAN DNA STRING. "You have about 10 trillion cells in your body, so if you stretched the DNA in all the cells out, end to end, they'd stretch over 744 million miles. The moon is only about 250,000 miles away, so all your DNA would stretch to the moon and back almost 1500 times. The sun is 93,000,000 miles away, so your DNA would reach there and back about 4 times!" https://lnkd.in/efn84gu View in LinkedIn

PLANETARY LIFE INVENTORY. "Ms. Landenmark and her colleagues performed an exhaustive review of the number of microbes, plants, animals and fungi found on Earth. They also included viruses, because those agents play an important role in processing DNA and genes." https://lnkd.in/eUq6xFH View in LinkedIn

GENE NUMBERS. "The number of genes ranges from about 1000 in bacteria to more than 400,000 in many flowering plants. Each species consists of many organisms and virtually no two members of the same species are genetically identical." This kind of data is commonplace. But how many genes are there in the entire world? A harder nut to crack. https://lnkd.in/egvZAuQ View in LinkedIn

FRAGMENT FROM NATURE features a singular paper from 2015 by Hanna K. E. Landenmark a graduate student, and Professor Charles S Cockell, from the University of Edinburgh's United Kingdom Centre for Astrobiology, entitled "An Estimate of the Total DNA in the Biosphere". The sheer calculation gymnastics deserves being singled out for merit. It s also a novel way to measure diversity. Enjoy! View in LinkedIn

LARGE RNA VIRUS POPULATIONS. "Possible examples of such hypersensitivity include overlapping reading frames, haploidy, and the loss of systems for genome repair." The hypersensitivity from the absence of redundancy mechanisms due to genome streamlining and a minimal genetic repertoire. https://lnkd.in/e9KGgbm View in LinkedIn

MOLECULAR SOPHISTICATION or baggage? View in LinkedIn