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THE KNOWN FUNCTIONAL PORTION. "The idea that 9% of the human genome shows signs of functionality is actually consistent with the results of ENCODE and other large-scale genome analyses." http://journals.plos.org/plosgenetics/article?id=10.1371/journal.pgen.1004351 View in LinkedIn

SMALL FRACTION CONSERVED. "Several analyses of sequence conservation between humans and other mammals have found that about 5% of the genome is conserved. It is possible that an additional 4% of the human genome is under lineage-specific selection pressure; however, this estimate appears to be somewhat questionable." http://journals.plos.org/plosgenetics/article?id=10.1371/journal.pgen.1004351 View in LinkedIn

FRESH GENES. "Flowers are all about sex, that's for sure." https://lnkd.in/e-2Hbnt View in LinkedIn

MOST PSEUDOGENES "are simply evolving without selective constraints on their sequences and likely have no function" (that is yet known!). http://journals.plos.org/plosgenetics/article?id=10.1371/journal.pgen.1004351 View in LinkedIn

SONG OF DARWIN. "The more I study nature, the more I become impressed […] that the contrivances and beautiful adaptations [acquired through natural selection] transcend in an incomparable degree [those] which the most fertile imagination of the most imaginative man could suggest with unlimited time at his disposal." https://lnkd.in/eykUy37 View in LinkedIn

EXAPTATION. "Some pseudogenes have been co-opted for organism-level function." http://journals.plos.org/plosgenetics/article?id=10.1371/journal.pgen.1004351 View in LinkedIn

FRAGMENT FROM NATURE for the next two weekends deals with the stunning emergence of flowering plants (angiosperms) on this planet. This event changed terrestrial biodiversity forever. This group is dominant, richly diverse, and very successful. Flowers, it turns out, are all about sexual recombination of genes. The genetic basis of this sudden event appears related to gene duplication. Rethink these remarkable creatures. View in LinkedIn

PSEUDOGENES. "The human genome is also home to a large number of pseudogenes. Estimates of the total number range from 12,600 to 19,700." http://journals.plos.org/plosgenetics/article?id=10.1371/journal.pgen.1004351 View in LinkedIn

COEVOLUTION. "Angiosperms and their insect pollinators have flourished with extraordinary diversity through parallel and successive "explosive" radiations over the past 140 million years. It has been suggested that the intimate relationships between flowering plants and their pollinators have fuelled each other's diversification." https://lnkd.in/ePD6mWn View in LinkedIn

FAST SPECIATION. "Flowers, the reproductive organs of flowering plants, are the most remarkable feature distinguishing them from the other seed plants. Flowers provided angiosperms with the means to have a more species-specific breeding system, and hence a way to evolve more readily into different species without the risk of crossing back with related species." https://lnkd.in/en2Nbzs View in LinkedIn