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FUNGAL SEXUAL GENES. “Comparative genomics identified many meiosis-specific genes, as well as the mating type locus that encodes genes that are critically required for sexual reproduction, in the apparently asexual fungus Candida glabrata, suggesting it has a cryptic sexual cycle.” https://lnkd.in/eC8eb-V View in LinkedIn

JUMPING GENES AND DIVERSITY. “Genome rearrangements are not only mediated by transposable elements, but also by other highly repetitive elements such as micro- and minisatellites; short nucleotide repeats that differ in the length of the repeat unit.” https://lnkd.in/eC8eb-V View in LinkedIn

CRYPTIC SEXUAL CYCLES. “Many fungal species have initially been considered to lack a conventional sexual cycle, and were thus seen as strictly asexual (clonal). However, several of these species were later discovered to have cryptic, hence hidden, sexual cycles, or other modes of reproduction.” https://lnkd.in/eC8eb-V View in LinkedIn

JUMPING GENES ROLE IN EVOLUTION. “In addition to these active roles, the major contribution of transposable elements toward genome evolution is passive. Non-faithful repair of double-strand DNA breaks is facilitated by highly similar sequences such as abundant or propagating transposable elements.” https://lnkd.in/eC8eb-V View in LinkedIn

IMPORTED GENES IN ROTIFER. “A. vaga has been subject to horizontal gene transfer as up to 8% of its genes are likely of non-metazoan origin, a frequency as high as reported for some bacteria. Frequent genomic rearrangements, gene conversion and horizontal gene transfers likely contribute to diversification and homogenization in the absence of sex, thereby revealing that sexual reproduction is not required for evolutionary success and persistence.” https://lnkd.in/eC8eb-V View in LinkedIn

VIRAL TOOLKIT. "These viral colonizers then can also be used to provide new sources of host complexity (such as the placenta)." https://lnkd.in/etdQ9rN View in LinkedIn

VIRAL RESISTANCE. "We have come to recently realize that viruses are omnipresent so all life must survive in its virosphere habitat. And such survival often involves virus themselves since virus, their defective and various other genetic parasites (mostly called transposons) can and often do provide virus resistance systems." https://lnkd.in/etdQ9rN View in LinkedIn

HUMAN GENOME RELICS. “Most of the junk consists of: (1) very obvious examples of broken genes (pseudogenes 5%); (2) bits and pieces of transposon sequences that used to be capable of transposing but have mutated over time (45%); and (3) ancient viral sequences that have degenerated (9%). That's 59% of the genome that's clearly junk DNA. In addition, there's plenty of evidence that most intron sequences are dispensable. That accounts for another 28% of the genome. The total amount of junk DNA is at least 87%.“ https://lnkd.in/d2xZtXk View in LinkedIn

FRAGMENT FROM NATURE continues from last weekend on the positive impact of viruses on life on this planet. For a very long time, viruses have only been associated with diseases, and little else was known about them. But few are pathogenic, and the rest have played either benign or astonishingly advantageous roles during evolution. We still have a long way to go in understanding them. Just look at the composition of our own genomes, replete with viral footprints. What does this mean? View in LinkedIn

ROLE OF VIRAL JUMPING GENES. “Furthermore, transposable element activity can mediate genomic rearrangements, which may be regulated by epigenetic modifications such as DNA methylation and histone modification.” https://lnkd.in/eC8eb-V View in LinkedIn