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PARADIGM CHALLENGED. "Our study suggests that the long-accepted paradigm that JHs maintain the juvenile status throughout larval life should be revised because the larval status can be maintained by a JH-independent mechanism in very early larval instars. We propose that the lack of competence for metamorphosis during the early larval stages may result from the absence of an unidentified broad-inducing factor, i.e., a competence factor." (JH = juvenile hormones). https://lnkd.in/eQ2nAQi View in LinkedIn

QUALITY EDITING. "Importantly, the segregation of translation from both transcription and RNA processing provided an opportunity for nuclear quality-control processes to eliminate misprocessed and spurious transcripts that did not meet the minimal requirements of “mRNA identity” before these RNAs ever encountered a ribosome." http://journals.plos.org/plosgenetics/article?id=10.1371/journal.pgen.1004351 View in LinkedIn

RNA PROCESSING SEGREGATION. "Not only would this segregation prevent translating ribosomes from interfering with the splicing reaction (and vice versa) but would also prevent the translation of incompletely processed mRNAs, which often encode toxic proteins." http://journals.plos.org/plosgenetics/article?id=10.1371/journal.pgen.1004351 View in LinkedIn

FIND THE WHY behind the diverse collections in themes, so that the organizing principles at the highest level start to emerge from the quacking populous of quirky diversity. Ever strive to join the dots between deep silos of specialized, often brilliant, and obscure scholarship. Concepts are hard won, wrested from the warm wet substratum of life itself. View in LinkedIn

JEWELS OF DARWIN. When hunting in the bowels of research, make sure that you are organized into clear and defined sections, but also permit a stream of connected consciousness to be your guide; boxes can be misleading. Then collect the truly beautiful, the weird and the downright gnarly just as you would a collection of rare stamps with esoteric misprints. No single living thing is too small or insignificant to not deserve rapt attention. More often than not, the one informs the other. View in LinkedIn

IF PASSIONATE ABOUT STUDYING NATURE, you will need to gird yourself with a systematic approach. First, collect the invaluable natural gems. Second, permit their internal logic to become revealed. Without this grid, it is easy to get lost in the forest of endless imagination. However, with this, you will have a hunting dog to inform and enthrall for the remaining hours of this all to brief life. View in LinkedIn

SONG OF DARWIN. "The more I study nature, the more I become impressed […] that the contrivances and beautiful adaptations [acquired through natural selection] transcend in an incomparable degree [those] which the most fertile imagination of the most imaginative man could suggest with unlimited time at his disposal." https://lnkd.in/eykUy37 View in LinkedIn

SO ENDS this peek at the most curious of rights of passage to enter new niches, avoid kin competition, and use new foods. Surely, there must be more to have gone to that much trouble for? While the how is deeply intriguing, the why remains elusive. Despite our ignorance, this lifestyle is widespread among some of the most successful insects on this planet. For science, how is often easier to answer than why. View in LinkedIn

RNA DOMINANCE. "This evidence, as well as a growing list of examples of functional human lncRNAs containing trait-associated SNPs (such as MIAT), has supported the possibility that much of the intergenic functional sequence in organisms acts through non-coding RNA rather than, or in addition to, DNA." (LncRNAs = long non-coding RNAs; SNPs = Single nucleotide polymorphisms, frequently called SNPs are the most common type of genetic variation among people). https://lnkd.in/e9BHyYj View in LinkedIn

ISOFORM DIVERSITY. "The ENCODE project team observed that human genes do not follow a minimalistic isoform expression strategy; instead each gene simultaneously produces up to 10 to 12 isoforms. In contrast, Brown et al., observed that in Drosophila, most genes have relatively few isoforms. In fact, 42% of Drosophila genes encode only a single transcript isoform, whereas in mammals, 95% of genes have multiple expressed isoforms." https://lnkd.in/e9BHyYj View in LinkedIn