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"VIRAL PARTICLES are much more abundant than cells and viral genes outnumber cellular ones in the biosphere. Cellular genomes also harbour many integrated viruses whereas cellular genes are rare in viral genomes. The gene flux from virus to cell is thus overwhelming if compared with the opposite event. Cells are giant pickpockets of viral genes and can mimic viral biology." http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1879625713001077 View in LinkedIn

LARGE IMPACT OF CODING CHANGES. "Across the diversity of life there is, by and large, considerable conservation of protein coding sequences; still, the number of coding changes that have the capacity to impact gene regulation, protein interactions and DNA-binding properties can be significant." https://lnkd.in/dD4GcAS View in LinkedIn

NUCLEUS IS OF VIRAL ORIGIN? "I contend that the cell nucleus itself is of viral origin. The nucleus may have evolved from a persisting large DNA virus that made a permanent home within prokaryotes." This has support In sequences of DNA polymerase genes but remains debated. http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=are-viruses-alive-2004&page=3 View in LinkedIn

ANIMALS VERSUS PLANTS. "While studies in animal systems show that a gain of new expression patterns is rare relative to changes in the timing or level of gene expression, the expansion or restriction of spatial expression domains, or the loss of expression features, gene duplication and rampant polyploidy that are inherent to plants enables the possibility for a gain of new expression to likewise provide a considerable source of developmental variation." https://lnkd.in/dD4GcAS View in LinkedIn

VIRUSES ARE GENETIC INNOVATORS. "The huge population of viruses, combined with their rapid rates of replication and mutation, makes them the world’s leading source of genetic innovation: they constantly “invent” new genes." https://lnkd.in/dQ2abpA View in LinkedIn

WIDE SUBTLETY OF OUTCOMES. "When a gene acquires a new TF binding site, it can alter its expression domain either by adding new expression or by repressing expression in certain locations, times or under certain conditions." (TF = transcription factors). https://lnkd.in/dD4GcAS View in LinkedIn

VIRUSES BUILD GENOMES of other species, at a significant rate. "Their contribution to mammalian genomes is probably underestimated because TEs have diverged beyond recognition. Most of them are inactivated by mutations so that they cannot replicate. They make up one third of our genome." (TE = transposable elements). https://lnkd.in/eGaw2Kq View in LinkedIn

OTHER MECHANISMS. "Cis-regulatory changes can evolve de novo by accumulation of mutations in cis-regulatory elements, or can be altered by increases in number and function of transcription factor (TF) binding sites following gene or whole-genome duplication events." https://lnkd.in/dD4GcAS View in LinkedIn

OTHER FUNCTIONAL MUTATIONS. "As changes in the coding region, especially of transcription factors, can cause downstream changes within a GRN that result in spatial and/or temporal alterations in gene expression, a mutation does not have to be in a regulatory region to cause a heritable regulatory change. Thus, while regulatory changes in gene expression are a major factor in evodevo, these changes may be caused by different types of functional mutations." (GRN = gene regulatory network). https://lnkd.in/dD4GcAS View in LinkedIn

"THE REGULATORY HYPOTHESIS predicts that phenotypic evolution is, in most cases, associated with changes in gene expression. Unlike the more stringent cis-regulatory hypothesis championed by Carroll, the more general regulatory hypothesis makes no clear prediction about the molecular nature of the genetic changes underlying regulatory evolution (i.e. whether they are cis or trans), emphasizing only that regulation is key to developmental evolution." https://lnkd.in/dD4GcAS View in LinkedIn