Category: Uncategorized

NATURAL BRAKES. "Decreased availability of susceptible hosts weakens selection for higher transmission rates. Ultimately, this may select for intermediate evolutionarily stable strategies, balancing the benefit (transmission) and the cost (virulence: induced host mortality) of host exploitation." https://lnkd.in/dvcWSUt View in LinkedIn

MICRO-RNAs AND COMPLEXITY. "In the evolutionary context, it is noteworthy that expansions of miRNAs seem to be associated with body-plan innovations and other phenotypic changes in bilaterians and vertebrates. They may therefore have significantly contributed to phenotypic evolution in animals." https://lnkd.in/dDg9xVY View in LinkedIn

SOFTER GENTLER STRATEGY. "First, epidemic spread reduces the density of susceptible hosts and can feed back on the selective pressure that favours intermediate exploitation strategies." https://lnkd.in/dvcWSUt View in LinkedIn

GROW SLOWER AND PERSIST. "Because pathogens compete for a common resource (the host population), the same process may select for extreme exploitation strategies. Yet, two main ecological factors can alter this evolutionary outcome and promote the evolution of less aggressive exploitation strategies." https://lnkd.in/dvcWSUt View in LinkedIn

BOOM AND BUST. "When individuals compete for a common resource natural selection often favours more aggressive exploitation strategies. This may lead to resource exhaustion and, consequently, to population extinction, a process known as the 'tragedy of the commons'." https://lnkd.in/dvcWSUt View in LinkedIn

VERTICAL DISEASES. "The unveiled structure is equivalent to a tree in cases where only vertical genetic exchange takes place, as can be seen in single-segment analysis of influenza A, dengue, West Nile virus, and rabies." http://www.pnas.org/content/110/46/18566.full View in LinkedIn

NEW PERSPECTIVE. "We show that whereas clonal evolution can be summarized as a tree, reticulate evolution exhibits nontrivial topology of dimension greater than zero. Our method effectively characterizes clonal evolution, reassortment, and recombination in RNA viruses." http://www.pnas.org/content/110/46/18566.full View in LinkedIn

TYPES OF HORIZONTALITY. "In nature, horizontal evolution can occur through species hybridization in eukaryotes, lateral gene transfer in bacteria, recombination and reassortment in viruses, viral integration in eukaryotes, and fusion of genomes of symbiotic species (e.g., mitochondria). These horizontal genetic exchanges create incompatibilities that mischaracterize the species tree." http://www.pnas.org/content/110/46/18566.full 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." http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960982214003881 View in LinkedIn

FRAGMENT FROM NATURE continues from last weekend on the theme of viruses. The most successful lifestyle for viruses is that of benign long-term cohabitation with the host, rather than pathenogenicity, which tends to have a boom-and-bust profile. What is deeply intriguing is that these creatures have become integral to vast populations of genomes, and have become integral for their host evolution. Are they the ghost in the machine, the hidden hand behind the wheel? Increasingly, it is hard to think otherwise. View in LinkedIn