Month: September 2022

55 M YO GENETIC FOSSILS. "Most HERVs appear to have entered the genome of our ancestors between 30 and 45 million years ago, after the divergence of Old and New World monkeys, although elements as old as 55 million years are known." https://lnkd.in/eW3mbzE View in LinkedIn

SHARDS. "Similar to artifacts in an archeological museum, time has left its traces on these retroviral elements and very often only “shards” of the once complete sequence remain." https://lnkd.in/eYf5f2J View in LinkedIn

DEEP INTERCONNECTEDNESS. "Every nature, every modeled form, every creature, exists in and with each other. They will dissolve again into their own proper root. For the nature of matter is dissolved into what belongs to its nature." A religious text supplied by my friend, noted UK naturalist, Matthew Oates. Not my usual diet, but seemed curiously fitting in this long section on mobile genetic elements. Maybe JC was a geneticist? https://lnkd.in/e3HbZSV View in LinkedIn

HIGHLY ADAPTIVE. "Many viruses can undergo incredibly rapid adaptation, eluding immune systems that learn to recognize previous strains." https://lnkd.in/bX9m4fJ View in LinkedIn

AND CAN BE STABLE. "Some researchers are pointing to emerging data on these viral "fossils" as indication that many viruses are in fact ancient—and have changed little since their material was integrated into host genomes." https://lnkd.in/bX9m4fJ View in LinkedIn

FORENSIC TRACKS. "The discovery that a broad range of viruses are represented by EVEs in animal genomes indicates that viral ‘molecular fossils’ can provide the basis for robust, time-scaled, macroevolutionary studies across a range of animal and virus groups." https://lnkd.in/bBjWGE5 View in LinkedIn

RIDDLED WITH MUTATIONS. "Because of their relatively long residence in the genome, the majority of HERV elements are riddled with deleterious mutations, large deletions, and insertions of other repetitive elements." https://lnkd.in/eW3mbzE View in LinkedIn

SHOT THROUGH. "Post-insertional recombinations, deletions, and mutations have rendered all known human endogenous retroviruses (HERVs) non-infectious. However some, particularly the most recently acquired proviruses of the HERV-K(HML-2) family, can expresses viral proteins and produce viral particles." http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fonc.2013.00246/full View in LinkedIn

UK to charge soda tax on sugary drinks, at last http://money.cnn.com/2016/03/16/news/sugar-levy-uk-budget/index.html View in LinkedIn

INFECTIOUS RETROVIRUSES. "In contrast to humans, several other species including mice and sheep carry infectious endogenous retroviruses" http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fonc.2013.00246/full View in LinkedIn