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Watch this space. http://www.theverge.com/2017/3/27/15077864/elon-musk-neuralink-brain-computer-interface-ai-cyborgs View in LinkedIn

FRAGMENT FROM NATURE continues with the theme of endosymbiont inheritance as part of a spectrum that concluded in the permanent engulfment of algae to form the permanent organelles chloroplasts and mitochondria during our evolutionary past. It also continues on the theme that biological individuality is an old concept and that we are holobionts, mosaic creatures composed of the genes of many species. View in LinkedIn

NEW CONCEPT. "In this way what historically seemed to be competing and selfish viruses can instead provide a unifying collective of viruses (and their defective participants) to better explain evolution, conservation as well as the plasticity and often cumulative genetic identities of complex organisms more coherently than the previous quasispecies concept." https://lnkd.in/eWydwab View in LinkedIn

PROTECTIVE MODULES. "All of the former competing groups become unified into stable/unstable modules that are counter-regulated, to provide immunity and memory systems, such as VDJ and CRISPRS/Cas, against related genetic parasites for the host." https://lnkd.in/eWydwab View in LinkedIn

ADDICTION MODULES. "Infected host organisms are the habitats in which such formerly competing agent groups (‘‘Gangen’’) now unify in addiction modules, which provide group identity such as TA, RM, and ID modules." https://lnkd.in/eWydwab View in LinkedIn

RNA RIBOSOME NETWORKS. "Recently, there has been an accumulation of experimental evidence that RNA ribozymes do act and emerge from collectives that can also form networks." https://lnkd.in/eWydwab View in LinkedIn

DRASTIC MEASURES. "A well-documented force affecting heritable symbionts is genetic drift leading to the fixation of neutral or deleterious mutations that cause gene inactivation, gene loss, or inefficiency of gene products. The basis for elevated genetic drift is the drastic shift in population genetic structure that occurs when a free-living microorganism adopts an obligate symbiotic lifestyle." https://lnkd.in/dcBwzRs View in LinkedIn

REPRESSING IMMUNITY. "Accommodation of symbionts may require that hosts suppress or modify immune responses, potentially elevating risk of pathogen invasion. In aphids, many genes underlying responses to Gram-negative bacteria have been eliminated, including the immune deficiency signaling pathway (IMD), peptidoglycan receptor proteins, and antimicrobial peptides." https://lnkd.in/dcBwzRs View in LinkedIn

BLURRED BOUNDARY. "Taken together, these findings for the Buchnera–aphid symbiosis point to extensive genomic and metabolic integration of symbiotic partners and blur the distinction between symbiont and organelle." https://lnkd.in/dcBwzRs View in LinkedIn

VIRAL DIVERSITY. "With the sole exception of large dsDNA viruses, all major classes of viruses display greater diversity in eukaryotes than in prokaryotes." (dsDNA = double stranded DNA). https://lnkd.in/dHhQ6QH View in LinkedIn