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THREE-WAY. "Niphanda fusca butterflies lay eggs on plants where ants tend herds of aphids. The eggs hatch as caterpillars which feed on the aphids. The ants do not defend the aphids from the caterpillars (this is due to the caterpillar producing a pheromone the ants detect making them think the caterpillar is actually one of them), but carry the caterpillars to their nest. In the nest, the ants feed the caterpillars, who in return produce honeydew for the ants." https://lnkd.in/dTDsdH3 View in LinkedIn

THE SPLIT. “Higher frequencies of ancient TEs in promoters and exons compared to introns implies that many lincRNA genes emerged before the split of primates and rodents.” (TE = transposable elements). https://lnkd.in/dwuaM5f View in LinkedIn

DISTRIBUTION. “Introns of lincRNA genes contain the highest percentage of TE-derived sequences (TES), followed by exons and then promoter regions although the density of TEs is not significantly different between exons and promoters.” (TE = transposable elements); (lincRNA = Long intergenic non-coding RNA). https://lnkd.in/dwuaM5f View in LinkedIn

SPARED. “The promoters of lincRNA appear to similarly enjoy greater plasticity and flexibility compared to the promoters of protein-coding genes.” (lincRNA = Long intronic non-coding RNA). https://lnkd.in/dwuaM5f View in LinkedIn

FOSSIL VIRUSES AND EVOLUTION. “We demonstrate that TEs substantially contribute to the evolution of lincRNAs and their promoter regions.” (TE = transposable elements); (lincRNA = Long intergenic non-coding RNA). https://lnkd.in/dwuaM5f View in LinkedIn

SO ENDS this case study of the relationship between ants and aphids, and of the microbiota in aphids. Without the microbiota, the aphids would starve, and higher up the food chain, the ants would be forced to earn a living differently. Dutch dolls. A series of exquisitely nested relationships that have been honed by aeons. View in LinkedIn

WAYS TO GO. “Taken together, these findings imply that an unknown but substantial fraction of lincRNAs are functional molecules rather than transcriptional noise and have evolutionary properties similar to those of protein-coding genes. However, the number of functionally characterized lincRNAs remains scarce.” (lincRNA = long intergenic non-coding RNA). https://lnkd.in/dwuaM5f View in LinkedIn

EVOLUTION RATE. “In particular, protein-coding genes that are highly expressed in many tissues typically evolve slower than genes with lower expression level and breadth, and a similar dependence has been observed for lincRNA genes.” (lincRNA = long intergenic non-coding RNA). https://lnkd.in/dwuaM5f View in LinkedIn

CODING ORIGINS. “Taking into account that some lincRNA genes originated from protein-coding genes it appears likely that many properties of lincRNAs would generally resemble those of protein-coding genes, despite the typically lower level of constraint.” (lincRNA = long intergenic non-coding RNA). https://lnkd.in/dwuaM5f View in LinkedIn

VIRAL ENRICHMENT. “Here, we add another facet to these observations by showing that the promoter regions of lincRNAs are specifically enriched for ancient TES. This finding indicates that not only have many lincRNA genes evolved before the radiation of primates and rodents but also that at least some features of their regulation were already established at that time through TE insertion.” (TES = TE-derived sequences; lincRNA = long intergenic non-coding RNA; TE = transposable element). https://lnkd.in/dwuaM5f View in LinkedIn