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SELF-INCOMPATIBILITY. “At one end of the spectrum of complexity, self-incompatibility systems involve closely co-evolving pistil- and pollen-expressed genes. The derivation of selfing in ancestrally self-incompatible lineages causes the loss of tightly co-evolved allelic diversity in the genes embedded at the S-locus.” https://lnkd.in/dj9hK7n View in LinkedIn

REASSEMBLING OUTCROSSING. “The genetic basis and complexity of the outcrossing mechanism are important because they control directly the likelihood that an outcrossing phenotype can be reassembled in a selfing population.” https://lnkd.in/dj9hK7n View in LinkedIn

HYPOTHETICAL. “In the absence of pollinators, reversals would be impossible, with the sole exception of a simultaneous shift to an abiotic mode of cross-pollination.” https://lnkd.in/dj9hK7n View in LinkedIn

A SOURCE OF GENETIC VARIATION. “Sexual reproduction has been observed in nearly all branches of the eukaryotic tree of life. It provides an important mechanism to establish genetic variation by combining genetic information of two parental lineages.” https://lnkd.in/eC8eb-V View in LinkedIn

IMPACT OF POLLINATORS. “Reversals to outcrossing are also unlikely when selfing evolves in pollinator-limited environments, because pollination vectors are necessary to produce outcrossed seed.” http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/nph.12182/full View in LinkedIn

TRANSITIONS DRIVEN BY VIRUSES. "I present evidence that, at least up to and including the origin of multicellularity, evolutionary transitions are driven by the coevolution of hosts with these genetic parasites along with sharing of ‘public goods’." https://lnkd.in/daxmUKR View in LinkedIn

EVOLUTIONARY TRANSITIONS. "The history of life is punctuated by evolutionary transitions which engender emergence of new levels of biological organization that involves selection acting at increasingly complex ensembles of biological entities. Major evolutionary transitions include the origin of prokaryotic and then eukaryotic cells, multicellular organisms and eusocial animals." https://lnkd.in/daxmUKR View in LinkedIn

UBIQUITOUS VIRAL PARASITES. "All or nearly all cellular life forms are hosts to diverse selfish genetic elements with various levels of autonomy including plasmids, transposons and viruses." https://lnkd.in/daxmUKR View in LinkedIn

PROFESSOR LLUIS P VILLARREAL, an extraordinary thinker and researcher. "For the last 15 years, I have focused my study on the general role of virus evolution on Life. In the last decade metagenomic assessments have led us to realize that viruses are the dominate biological entities of the biosphere and are the most numerous, diverse and dynamic genetic agents on Earth. I am now tracing how viruses have contributed to host group survival from bacteria to human social evolution." https://lnkd.in/enQH9Fn View in LinkedIn

FRAGMENT FROM NATURE focuses for this and next weekend on the work of Professor Lluis Villarreal, who has proposed that viruses have played an intimate role in human evolution, and all major evolutionary transitions. He has been an outspoken and sometimes controversial voice for this biological dark matter at a time when most biologists dismiss viruses as oddball curiosities that are more chemical than living. They have left their traces in our genomes, have fashioned some of the great cycles on this planet, defy species limits, and outnumber other creatures. Enjoy this glimpse into biological dark matter that is mostly left in the biological rubbish bin. View in LinkedIn