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CANDIDATE GENES APPROACH. "Large numbers of comparative studies have demonstrated that changes in expression patterns of developmental genes are correlated with the evolution of morphological phenotypes. These data underlie the ‘candidate gene’ approach, in which genes that are functionally determined to cause particular phenotypes when mutated are hypothesized to be responsible for similar phenotypic changes during evolution." https://lnkd.in/dD4GcAS View in LinkedIn

LARGER GENOMES. "Replacement of RNA by DNA as genetic material has thus opened the way to the formation of large genomes, a prerequisite for the evolution of modern cells. The above scenario nicely explains why, through Darwinian competition, cell populations with DNA genomes finally eliminated cells with RNA genomes." https://lnkd.in/dNTbYMw View in LinkedIn

TEMPORAL AND SPATIAL CONSIDERATIONS. "Rampant polyploidy in natural populations results in duplicate gene copies that can undergo differential selection and allow for temporal and positional alternations in genetic networks to emerge, conferring novel phenotypes upon which selection may act." https://lnkd.in/dD4GcAS View in LinkedIn

BORROWED MACHINERY. "Most DNA viruses are entirely dependent on the host DNA and RNA synthesizing machinery, and RNA processing machinery, while larger genome viruses encode this machinery themselves. All RNA viruses use their own RNA replicase enzymes to replicate their genomes." https://lnkd.in/dNTbYMw View in LinkedIn

POTENTIAL RED HERRINGS. "While the underlying genetic networks are often conserved across plant lineages, genes identified to be important in the regulation of phenotypic changes for wildtype and mutant plants in model species may not translate into the types of genetic and phenotypic changes that are selected upon and affect survival and reproductive fitness under natural environmental conditions." https://lnkd.in/dD4GcAS View in LinkedIn

WHY DNA? "A major question is why was DNA selected to replace RNA? The traditional explanation is that DNA replaced RNA as genetic material because it is more stable and can be repaired more faithfully." https://lnkd.in/dNTbYMw View in LinkedIn

CANCER MUTANT CLONES. "The selection of advantageous mutations underlies tumorigenesis. The growth of a tumor is therefore a form of evolution at the somatic level, in which the population is comprised of individual cells within the tumor. Tumor growth is initiated by one or more mutations which give a cell a selective advantage. The clone derived from that cell then expands. Successive advantageous mutations occur, each followed by waves of clonal expansion." https://lnkd.in/dM_2K6d View in LinkedIn

HORIZONTAL GENE TRANSFER IN TUMORIGENESIS. "Highly pleomorphic bacteria have been regularly isolated from a variety of mammalian tumors and leukemic bloods...some highly pleomorphic bacteria express mammalian eukaryote-derived genes acquired through a process of eukaryote-to-prokaryote DNA transfer that is driven by changes in the oxygen environment." https://lnkd.in/dSMG3K7 View in LinkedIn

CANCER AND INFECTIONS. "Increasing evidence suggests a key role for the bacterial microbiota in carcinogenesis. Chronic infections contribute to carcinogenesis with approximately 18% of the global cancer burden being directly attributable to infectious agents." An important opinion paper. https://lnkd.in/dxkqA5P View in LinkedIn

HGT AND CANCER. "The American Cancer Society reports that 15-20% of cancers worldwide and 10% of cancers in developed countries are linked to viral, bacterial, or parasitic infections. Could this be another example of HGT by proto-oncogene disruption?" (HGT = horizontal gene transfer). https://lnkd.in/eBQXvvd View in LinkedIn