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DIVERSE ORIGINS. "The origins of viruses in the evolutionary history of life are unclear: some may have evolved from plasmids—pieces of DNA that can move between cells—while others may have evolved from bacteria. In evolution, viruses are an important means of horizontal gene transfer, which increases genetic diversity." https://lnkd.in/eF3wTsF View in LinkedIn

CROSSING THE SPECIES BARRIER. "The origin of bacterial genes in eukaryotes. In addition to gene duplication, HGT events have played a major role in the emergence of the eukaryotic cell, as is evident by the significant amount of genes that clearly are of bacterial origin that reside on eukaryotic genomes." (HGT = Horizontal Gene Transfer). http://www.biochemsoctrans.org/content/41/1/451.full View in LinkedIn

SMALL IS HUGE. "Almost all of the life in the oceans, by weight, is prokaryotic (bacteria and archaea), with viruses and protists making up roughly equal amounts of the remaining. The big stuff, the whales and other charismatic mega-fauna are actually pretty trivial in terms of overall biomass. 95% to 98% of the living material, by weight, in the oceans is microscopic. In a litre of coastal seawater there are more viruses than there are people on the planet." http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/doi/full/10.1139/gen-2013-0152 View in LinkedIn

GENE AMPLIFICATION. "A significant part of the paralogous gene content of the ancestral eukaryotic gene content seems to be a result of lateral gene transfer, which, at least in part, was acquired via the endosymbiosis that gave rise to the emergence of the mitochondrion." The ancient symbiotic bacteria that became our nucleus supplied many genes to our repertoire. Genes outsourced? http://www.biochemsoctrans.org/content/41/1/451.full View in LinkedIn

GREATEST GLOBAL BIODIVERSITY: VIRUSES. "The oceans are being viewed as a vast reservoir of potential genetic and biological diversity that can be interrogated to uncover processes and functions. Perhaps surprising to some, most life in the oceans, by weight, is microbial." https://lnkd.in/e2MHV6z View in LinkedIn

GENOMIC BEEFING UP. "The ancestral eukaryotic gene repertoire seems to have approximately doubled in size before the onset of the major eukaryotic radiations." http://www.biochemsoctrans.org/content/41/1/451.full View in LinkedIn

"MASSIVE GENE DUPLICATION at the basis of the eukaryotic emergence. The existence of a large amount of pan-eukaryotic paralogues suggests that gene duplication has been a major driving force in eukaryotic evolution. For example, whereas many components of the eukaryotic core machinery comprise two or more gene copies, their prokaryotic counterparts mostly contain only a single gene." Generating more material to reformulate, a bigger tool box. http://www.biochemsoctrans.org/content/41/1/451.full View in LinkedIn

PROK TO EUK TRANSITION. "The evolutionary transition from prokaryote to eukaryote has been a complex journey in which non-tree-like processes have probably played a decisive role." http://www.biochemsoctrans.org/content/41/1/451.full View in LinkedIn

THIRD CONSENSUS. "A significant fraction of the eukaryotic genes encode proteins that are restricted to eukaryotes, the so-called ESPs (eukaryotic signature proteins)." http://www.biochemsoctrans.org/content/41/1/451.full View in LinkedIn

SPECIES AS FUNDAMENTAL UNITS. "Readers of Systematic Biology hardly need to be reminded of the importance of species in biology. According to various authors, species are one of the fundamental units of biology, making them comparable in importance to genes, cells, and organisms, some of the fundamental units at lower levels of biological organization." https://lnkd.in/edvh3zR View in LinkedIn