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DOMINANT LIFESTYLE ON EARTH. "We have heard much about non-coding RNAs, mobile genetic elements, repeat sequences, and introns— all of them formerly being termed ‘‘junk,’’ but now we can imagine these as remnants of persistent viral infection events. Thus, the persistent viral lifestyle is the most dominant biological lifestyle on this planet." https://lnkd.in/eWydwab View in LinkedIn

NOT JUNK DNA. "The majority of the human genome consists of non-coding regions that have been called junk DNA. However, recent studies have unveiled that these regions contain cis-regulatory elements, such as promoters, enhancers, silencers, insulators, etc. These regulatory elements can play crucial roles in controlling gene expressions in specific cell types, conditions, and developmental stages. Disruption to these regions could contribute to phenotype changes." https://lnkd.in/dpPBtPH View in LinkedIn

RELATIVE STABILITY. "Recently Evolved Promoters, Though Less Common Than Enhancers, Are Mostly Found in Young DNA. Promoters are far more evolutionarily stable than are enhancers. Nevertheless, the absolute number of promoters deeply conserved across all 20 study species is similar to the number of recently evolved promoters in any one species." https://lnkd.in/dnC2aVU View in LinkedIn

ENHANCER YOUTH. "Perhaps our most surprising finding is that representative mammals typically deploy over 10,000 enhancers in a lineage- and probably most often species-specific manner. In total, almost half of all enhancers in each species appear to be recently evolved." https://lnkd.in/dnC2aVU View in LinkedIn

ENHANCER IMPACT. "Both conserved and recently evolved enhancer sequences have been shown to have important phenotypic consequences. Highly conserved enhancer sequences can regulate fundamental processes, such as embryonic development." https://lnkd.in/dnC2aVU View in LinkedIn

DIFFERENTIAL EVOLUTION RATES. "Rapid enhancer and slow promoter evolution across genomes of 20 mammalian species. Enhancers are rarely conserved across these mammals. Recently evolved enhancers dominate mammalian regulatory landscapes." https://lnkd.in/dnC2aVU View in LinkedIn

RADICAL THINKING. "A major discovery of the past 20 years is that variation at certain genetic loci produce comparable phenotypic variation not only in various individuals of one population, but also in extremely diverse taxa." Contemplate this apparent radical heresy before moving on. https://lnkd.in/d3vzXnd View in LinkedIn

DECEPTIVELY SIMPLE. "Three characteristics contribute to the rapid evolution of these viruses: large populations, short generation times and high mutation rates. Every mutation, which enables its carrier to evade the host’s immune system, will be (positively) selected, passed on to the next generation and distributed more widely. Influenza viruses evolve 1 million times faster than mammals. Five years of virus evolution roughly correspond to the time span, which separates humans and chimpanzees from their last common ancestor." https://lnkd.in/d8xM5QF View in LinkedIn

CONTEXTUAL EFFECTS. "Gene-by-Environment (GxE) interaction occurs when the phenotypic effect of a given genetic change depends on environmental parameters. Similarly, epistasis, or GxG interaction, occurs when the phenotypic effect of a given genetic change depends on the allelic state of at least one other locus." https://lnkd.in/d3vzXnd View in LinkedIn

STREAMLINING AND OUTSOURCING. Extreme genome reduction in symbiotic bacteria. "These symbionts have numerous features in common, such as extraordinarily fast protein evolution and a high abundance of chaperones. Together, these features point to highly degenerate genomes that retain only the most essential functions, often including a considerable fraction of genes that serve the hosts." https://lnkd.in/dx2k-vt View in LinkedIn