Year: 2022

STABLE VIRAL COLONIES. "The study of DNA virus persistence and RNA virus evolution has defined the concepts of addiction modules and quasispecies which can respectively explain the persistence of virus information and the cooperative evolution of viral populations (including defective virus). Together, these concepts can be applied to a wide array of phenomena that emerge from stable virus colonization of host." https://lnkd.in/dk3eXRj View in LinkedIn

VIRAL EDITING OF HOST IDENTITY. "Since viruses are naturally competent in host code but also extend that code, they are natural agents for code editing. They are also natural agents to create new host identity (self), although this typically involves cooperative populations of agents." https://lnkd.in/dk3eXRj View in LinkedIn

COMPREHENSIVE EXPLANATION. "The combined concepts of addiction modules and quasispecies can be applied to understand a wide array of phenomena, involving cooperation, network formation, symbiosis, immunity and group identity, all of which are also examined from a virus first perspective." https://lnkd.in/dk3eXRj View in LinkedIn

VIRAL INVOLVEMENT. "All systems of host identity and immunity can be examined from this way and show viral involvement. I also examine the emergence of human social identity from this perspective which provides many new insights for the origin of social cooperation." https://lnkd.in/dk3eXRj View in LinkedIn

VIRUSES AND THE PLACENTA. "The emergence of mammalian vivipary and the placenta presents many biological and behavioral issues that challenge theories of evolution. These biological and immunological dilemmas are associated with the emergence of the ‘foreign’ mammalian placenta (expressing paternal genes)." https://lnkd.in/etdQ9rN View in LinkedIn

ALL PLACENTAL LINEAGES. "Over the years, it has become increasingly evident that endogenized retroviruses (ERVs) have been intimately and deeply involved in the placenta of all mammalian lineages." http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/apm.12485/full View in LinkedIn

VIRUSES AND ALL TRANSITIONS. "We can then see that viruses were involved in most all major transitions of host biology in evolution. This will likely seem an overstated or even preposterous position to most readers. How could genetic parasites (viruses) be providing such fundamental capacity for host evolution? And why would they do so?" http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/apm.12485/full View in LinkedIn

SO ENDS this first part on the evolutionary impact of viruses. They do not fit into the relatively tidy box that Victorian biologists constructed of the world. They defy the idea of species. They frustrate definitions of life. Their form is pure Euclidian geometry. They shimmer at the edge of our definitions of life. They mutate and reproduce at extraordinary rates. And contrary to the old picture, few are pathogenic and many have played an integral role in the evolution of life on this planet. A radical new picture. View in LinkedIn

REDUNDANCY. “The wheat pathogen Mycosphaerella graminicola contains 21 chromosomes of which eight are conditionally dispensable. Particularly, the dispensable chromosomes display a high frequency of chromosomal rearrangements and, in the absence of strong positive selection, have been hypothesized to drive divergence.” https://lnkd.in/eC8eb-V View in LinkedIn

GENERATING DIVERSITY. “Chromosomal rearrangements induce a multitude of genomic variations such as duplications, deletions, inversions, and translocations, leading to the gain or loss of genomic material and are observed in both sexual and asexual fungi.” https://lnkd.in/eC8eb-V View in LinkedIn