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VIRUSES ARE US. "The human genome is full of transposable elements (TEs), endogenous viruses and various retroelements, which correspond to almost 50 % of the human genome. Infection of germline cells led to the accumulation of viral genes during evolution and made the human genome a “graveyard” of retroviral fossils." https://lnkd.in/eGaw2Kq View in LinkedIn

EVOLUTION. "Salvador Luria mused about the viral influence on evolution in 1959. “May we not feel,” he wrote, “that in the virus, in their merging with the cellular genome and reemerging from them, we observe the units and process which, in the course of evolution, have created the successful genetic patterns that underlie all living cells?” http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=are-viruses-alive-2004&page=3 View in LinkedIn

SOME CONSENSUS: "eukaryotic genomes have a chimaeric nature: genes for information storage and processing are archaea-related, and genes for metabolic or ‘operational’ processes are mostly bacterial in nature (but not necessarily derived from the mitochondrial progenitor)." https://lnkd.in/dtPERjK View in LinkedIn

"EXPRESSION can be influenced by changes to variable upstream TF binding regions (cis-regulatory elements), by changes to coding sequences that alter protein–protein interactions essential for transcriptional regulation, by changes in heterochromatin location that silence or unsilence expression, or by changes in copy number that result in additional genes that can be coexpressed or subfunctionalized to effect new expression patterns." (TF = transcription factors). https://lnkd.in/dD4GcAS View in LinkedIn

"VIRAL PARTICLES are much more abundant than cells and viral genes outnumber cellular ones in the biosphere. Cellular genomes also harbour many integrated viruses whereas cellular genes are rare in viral genomes. The gene flux from virus to cell is thus overwhelming if compared with the opposite event. Cells are giant pickpockets of viral genes and can mimic viral biology." http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1879625713001077 View in LinkedIn

LARGE IMPACT OF CODING CHANGES. "Across the diversity of life there is, by and large, considerable conservation of protein coding sequences; still, the number of coding changes that have the capacity to impact gene regulation, protein interactions and DNA-binding properties can be significant." https://lnkd.in/dD4GcAS View in LinkedIn

NUCLEUS IS OF VIRAL ORIGIN? "I contend that the cell nucleus itself is of viral origin. The nucleus may have evolved from a persisting large DNA virus that made a permanent home within prokaryotes." This has support In sequences of DNA polymerase genes but remains debated. http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=are-viruses-alive-2004&page=3 View in LinkedIn

ANIMALS VERSUS PLANTS. "While studies in animal systems show that a gain of new expression patterns is rare relative to changes in the timing or level of gene expression, the expansion or restriction of spatial expression domains, or the loss of expression features, gene duplication and rampant polyploidy that are inherent to plants enables the possibility for a gain of new expression to likewise provide a considerable source of developmental variation." https://lnkd.in/dD4GcAS View in LinkedIn

VIRUSES ARE GENETIC INNOVATORS. "The huge population of viruses, combined with their rapid rates of replication and mutation, makes them the world’s leading source of genetic innovation: they constantly “invent” new genes." https://lnkd.in/dQ2abpA View in LinkedIn

WIDE SUBTLETY OF OUTCOMES. "When a gene acquires a new TF binding site, it can alter its expression domain either by adding new expression or by repressing expression in certain locations, times or under certain conditions." (TF = transcription factors). https://lnkd.in/dD4GcAS View in LinkedIn