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UNDER THE BUGSCOPE. "Viruses have evolved highly effective strategies for establishing chronic infection despite the presence of an active host antiviral immune response. Thus, they should be viewed as highly sophisticated molecular machines that have been “studying” us far longer than we have been studying them." http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0092867409007831 View in LinkedIn

GREAT UNKNOWN. "We predict that the advent of high-throughput genome sequencing will significantly increase the number of known human viruses and the number of viruses that contribute to our metagenome via the establishment of chronic infection." http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0092867409007831 View in LinkedIn

NEW PASSENGERS. "New polyomaviruses are not our only recently recognized passengers. Anelloviruses and related viruses, as well as adeno-associated virus (AAV), are now recognized to infect most humans by the end of childhood." http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0092867409007831 View in LinkedIn

CO-EVOLUTION. "There are many animal polyomaviruses, and polyomavirus infection is highly species specific. This suggests prolonged coevolution of humans with at least five different polyomaviruses. Similarly, the eight known human herpesviruses are extremely efficient at establishing chronic infections; most of us carry many herpesviruses for our entire lives." http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0092867409007831 View in LinkedIn

FINAL CONSIDERATION. "Our next step is to determine which naturally occurring genetic changes affect ecologically relevant phenotypes and how natural selection acts upon those phenotypes to confer adaptive evolution." https://lnkd.in/dD4GcAS View in LinkedIn

SILENT MAJORITY. "Little is known about some of the viruses that inhabit us. This is due to the focus of research on viruses that cause disease in a high proportion of infected individuals. Many of the most prevalent chronic virus infections only rarely cause disease, are not associated with any disease at all, or cause disease primarily in immunocompromised individuals." http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0092867409007831 View in LinkedIn

SO ENDS the first weekend on evo-devo as an idea. The evolution and development of symmetry in the snapdragon is a topic that has engaged some of our brightest minds. Such focus and attention to the smallest details of a fragment of nature is not only a marvelous luxury but also permits a portal into the greater inner workings of life on planet earth. We are enriched by such scholarship. View in LinkedIn

MORE COMPLEX THAN JUST CANDIDATE GENES. "In many cases, differential copy numbers of the genes involved in the networks may contribute to a shift in timing or placement of gene expression, resulting in novelty in form. Thus, both regulatory changes as well as novel or altered DNA binding and/or protein interactions (i.e. coding changes) must be investigated." https://lnkd.in/dD4GcAS View in LinkedIn

GENE NETWORKS FOR ADAPTATION. "In order to study the genetics of adaptation in floral form, the full developmental networks underlying organ morphology must be determined for the lineage under study. Using a comparative approach among related species or within polymorphic populations, mutation(s) causing an observed change in gene expression or alterations in protein interactions can be identified." https://lnkd.in/dD4GcAS View in LinkedIn

UNDERLYING NUANCES. "Differential expression and interactions of the network genes can underlie symmetry differences among flowers by influencing characters such as petal shape, stamen growth and cell type differentiation within flowers and lineage-specific changes in copy numbers of these genes, each copy having the potential to acquire mutations in regulatory or coding regions, provide opportunities for novel developmental and morphological consequences." https://lnkd.in/dD4GcAS View in LinkedIn