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DUBIOUS EQUIVALENT. "The utility of equating complexity with entropy is dubious at best as becomes particularly clear when one attempts to define genomic complexity. Indeed, using sequence entropy (Shannon information) as a measure of genomic complexity is obviously disingenuous given that under this approach the most complex sequence is a truly random one that, almost by definition is devoid of any biological information." http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/bies.201300037/full View in LinkedIn

UNWOUND THEORY. "It seems logical that organisms should acquire mechanisms that push the age of onset of ill effects from numerous minor defects associated with genetic load toward later ages. However, our analysis suggests that such mechanisms, if carried to extremes, have bad evolutionary repercussions." http://www.pnas.org/content/110/25/10141.full View in LinkedIn

EXEMPLARS OF STREAMLINING. "The mitochondria, the ubiquitous energy-transforming organelles of eukaryotes, and the chloroplasts, the organelles responsible for the eukaryotic photosynthesis, are the ultimate realizations of bacterial reductive evolution." http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/bies.201300037/full View in LinkedIn

DRIVEN TO EXTINCTION. "At a snapshot in time, hazards lie low for a stretch of ages, climb at ages where remaining net fertility is dropping off, and link up with the old-age segment. As time goes by, the climbing phase shifts down to younger and younger ages, until the hazard rate at every adult age comes to be marching toward infinity. Unbounded accumulation of mutations across the whole reproductive span drives any population to extinction." http://www.pnas.org/content/110/25/10141.full View in LinkedIn

“GENETIC OUTSOURCING is not to be confused with simplification in parasite downsizing. In many cases, access to the host genome, or simply parking of its own genetic burden can be seen as a type of genetic expansion strategy. Streamlining with greater efficiency and greater plasticitymay be a better term than simplification.” http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/bies.201300037/full View in LinkedIn

VESTIGIAL EFFECTS. "It seems to us likely that effects of accumulating mutations in humans are now seen at postreproductive ages bearing age-specific signatures that were imprinted at earlier epochs when their contributions were more rapidly lethal at younger ages." http://www.pnas.org/content/110/25/10141.full View in LinkedIn

ODDBALL EXCEPTIONS. "For species like humans, with substantial postreproductive survival, theories that emphasize mutation accumulation face the challenge of accounting for the absence of a wall of death at the end of reproduction." http://www.pnas.org/content/110/25/10141.full View in LinkedIn

MUCH OF NON-CODING DNA OF UNKNOWN FUNCTION. "In this review, we provide an overview of the major arguments that have been presented in support of the notion that a large portion of most eukaryotic genomes lacks an organism-level function.” http://journals.plos.org/plosgenetics/article?id=10.1371/journal.pgen.1004351 View in LinkedIn

MARGIN OF ERROR. "However, more recent computational models have demonstrated that genomes could sustain multiple slightly deleterious mutations per generation." http://journals.plos.org/plosgenetics/article?id=10.1371/journal.pgen.1004351 View in LinkedIn

MUTATION RATE. "Currently, the rate of mutation in humans is estimated to be anywhere from 70–150 mutations per generation. By this line of reasoning, we would estimate that, at most, only 1% of the nucleotides in the genome are essential for viability in a strict sequence-specific way." http://journals.plos.org/plosgenetics/article?id=10.1371/journal.pgen.1004351 View in LinkedIn