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NON-CODING DNA. "For decades, non-coding regions of the genome have been ignored or declared as ‘‘junk’’-DNA. Over the past decade, however, scientists have realized that these regions incorporate decisive higher-order regulatory functions." https://lnkd.in/e-pJFM6 View in LinkedIn

EVOLUTION WITHOUT GENE MUTATION. "Significant evolutionary modifications can occur by changing the repetitive elements that format the genome architecture rather than, as has been widely assumed so far, by altering protein-coding sequences. This implies that changes in the regulatory framework may lead to new complex phenotypes without even requiring a modification of the coding sequences." https://lnkd.in/e-pJFM6 View in LinkedIn

SO ENDS two weekends on the beautiful earthworm. This prolific creature plays a critical role in the generation of healthy complex soils. They were generally felt insignificant for agriculture a few decades ago, but research has supported a view of their critical role in healthy soils. Our modern farming methods, including deep tilling and the heavy use of chemicals is killing these critical creatures. Like many adverse effects, these are reversible. https://lnkd.in/eAqFNYN View in LinkedIn

RICH SOIL GENE POOL. "This indicates that the metagenomes from the two micro-ecosystem samples sequenced here are more than 30-fold larger than the human genome, and more than 20 000-fold that of an average bacterial genome. Given one gene per kb, our data indicate that there are about 100 million genes in the soil metagenome." http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jam.12035/full View in LinkedIn

SOIL METAGENOME. "Together with the direct estimate of a combined metagenome sizes at about 100 billion base pairs, these data support large soil metagenome sizes with a low content of eukaryotic species (

EARTHWORM MICROBIOME. "We have described how the earthworm microbiome is distinct from the surrounding soil microbial community. Notably, the L. rubellus microbiome is dominated by Proteobacteria (~50%) and Actinobacteria (~30%). Bacteroidetes (~6%), Acidobacteria (~3%), Firmicutes, Chloroflexi and Cyanobacteria also appear regularly at lower abundance levels." https://lnkd.in/eVE-4GB View in LinkedIn

COMPREHENSIVE EARTHWORM MICROBIOME. "The augmentation with some groups of bacteria, which occurred upon transit through the gut...The ratio of microbes capable of growth under obligatory anaerobic conditions to those capable of growth aerobically was higher in the worm intestine than in the soil...bacterial communities of studied substrata (soil and compost) were significantly modified passing through the gut of earthworms." https://lnkd.in/ekT4s-F View in LinkedIn

EARTHWORM PRIMING CARBON. "Levels of organic carbon are higher in the gut than the surrounding soil due to the secretion of intestinal mucus producing a ‘priming’ effect. This can stimulate significantly an increase in the abundance of methanogenic, fermentative, and nitrate-reducing bacteria." https://lnkd.in/eVE-4GB View in LinkedIn

MICROBIAL IMPACT OF EARTHWORMS. "The earthworm impact on transient microbial communities and the surrounding soil microbiome is profound. A core bacterial community has been described which is distinct from the surrounding soil. A number of novel species have been associated with the earthworm crop, body wall and hindgut, contravening claims that the earthworm has limited or no impact on ingested soil bacteria." https://lnkd.in/eEdXpVE View in LinkedIn

RETROVIRAL TAGS. "The gag gene encodes structural proteins, pol encodes enzymes such as reverse transcriptase, protease, ribonuclease and integrase functions, and env encodes envelope proteins, surface and transmembrane proteins and proteins causing host cell fusion and immunosuppression." https://lnkd.in/euyhznh View in LinkedIn