Year: 2022

JUMPING GENES, "Junk DNA", transposable elements (TE), or the selfish genes. "Transposable elements (TEs) can be seen as selfish genetic entities, the spread of which can be deleterious to the host cell due to the genomic instability that is induced by a massive increase in copy number. As a result of the conflicting interests of TEs and the host genome, the cell has developed various processes to control retrotransposon activity."" " http://lnkd.in/FekDZi View in LinkedIn

THE SELFISH GENE or ancient jumping gene transposons (TE) from other species was likely carried by viruses or parasites. "The staggering evolutionary success of TEs is attributed mostly to their ability to out-replicate the host genomes in which they reside, as opposed to any selective advantage that they might provide to their hosts. Indeed, TEs can spread within and among genomes, even when there is a selective cost to their hosts". " " http://lnkd.in/d8w3aj View in LinkedIn

JUMPING GENES AS DNA PARASITES? Transposable elements (TE ) "are found in many major branches of life. They may have originated in the last universal common ancestor, or arisen independently multiple times, or perhaps arisen once and then spread to other kingdoms by horizontal gene transfer. While some TEs may confer benefits on their hosts, most are regarded as selfish DNA parasites. In this way, they are similar to viruses... leading to speculation that they share a common ancestor."" " http://lnkd.in/6FT7kj View in LinkedIn

THE SOUP OF GENETIC ELEMENTS: Jumping genes, coding DNA (genes), and viruses are genetic elements that are shuffled like cards. "Irrespective of the strict definition of selfish DNA, there is no sharp, definitive boundary between the concepts of selfish DNA and genetically functional DNA. Often it also is difficult to establish whether a unit of noncoding DNA is functionally important or not, and if important, in what way. What is more, it is not always easy to distinguish between ...selfish DNA and ...viruses."" " http://lnkd.in/2yUP2c View in LinkedIn

PARASITISM CAN BE BILATERAL, as transposable elements (TE), while probably originally DNA parasites, may account for the infinite capacity of the immune system. Nature is opportunistic both ways. "TEs may have been co-opted by the vertebrate immune system as a means of producing antibody diversity: The V(D)J recombination system operates by a mechanism similar to that of some TEs."" " http://lnkd.in/6FT7kj View in LinkedIn

SOME WASPS EXPLOIT VIRUSES, (which are another type of DNA parasite that needs a host's molecular machinery to reproduce), to subdue the wasp's hosts. A type of reverse parasitism which shows how enormously dynamic the genome is. " " http://lnkd.in/Pkgqxa View in LinkedIn

EPIGENETICS, the modifications of DNA by methods like methylation, controls the expression of jumping genes, often acting to silence them. " " http://lnkd.in/FekDZi View in LinkedIn

PARADIGM SHIFT: "A paradigm shift because, until now, horizontal transfer has been seen as very rare in animal species. It's actually a lot more common than we think....the hAT transposon invasion occurred about 30 million years ago and spread across at least two continents. The hAT transposon does not occur in humans, but some 45% of our genome is of transposon origin."It's like a pandemic, and one that can infect species that weren't genetically or geographically close...."" " http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn14992-space-invader-dna-infiltrated-mammalian-genomes.html#.Ug4Iovoayc0p View in LinkedIn

GENETICALLY ENGINEERED PLANTS (GMO) are simply old hat, and evolution has been tinkering with this for aeons. "Much, if not most, changes that occur to plant chromosomes during evolution is generated by dynamic rearrangement of plant DNA orchestrated by mobile parasitic DNA. Typical plant genomes can contain about 90 percent of their DNA as the remnants of the past movement and multiplication of mobile DNA, reflecting the huge amount of mobile DNA multiplication that occurs during plant evolution."" " http://academicsreview.org/reviewed-content/genetic-roulette/section-2/2-7-mobile-dna/ View in LinkedIn

DNA PARASITIC jumping genes are highly varied, complex and widespread. This is a terrific review of current knowledge." " http://lnkd.in/XQ6J9J View in LinkedIn