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FREQUENT NOVELTY. "The evolution of influenza, a segmented single-stranded RNA orthomyxovirus, is punctuated by frequent reassortment." http://www.pnas.org/content/110/46/18566.full View in LinkedIn

MOBILE GENETIC ELEMENTS, non-coding RNAs, viral origins of regulatory elements, epigenetics, Viruses, and new ways of thinking about evolution have occupied this blog for some weeks, as part of a new synthesis of molecular biology that is underway by great thinkers. Now it is time to turn to another cornerstone in modern biology that needs a review, namely Mendelian inheritance. A precondition of natural selection. View in LinkedIn

TIMECOURSE OF INFECTION. "Our central result is that the fitness of a virulent strain relative to a more prudent strain decreases as the environment becomes increasingly structured." https://lnkd.in/dvcWSUt View in LinkedIn

KEY PRECONDITIONS. “Four general conditions necessary for natural selection to occur are:" "A. More organisms are born than can survive." "B. Organisms vary in their characteristics, even within a species." "C. Variation is inherited." "D. Differences in reproduction and survival are due to variation among organisms.” https://lnkd.in/dF6cSQH View in LinkedIn

SLOWING VIRULENCE. "During an epidemic, disease prevalence increases, and the opportunities to find uninfected hosts dwindle. This may select for prudent exploitation of the remaining host population. In a previous study, we demonstrated the impact of such epidemiological feedback on the evolution of bacteriophage λ." https://lnkd.in/dvcWSUt View in LinkedIn

ORDERLY SELECTION. “Natural selection can be defined as the process by which random evolutionary changes are selected for by nature in a consistent, orderly, non-random way.” Contemplate slowly. https://lnkd.in/dMpUKUA View in LinkedIn

HORIZONTALITY AND PROXIMITY. "The effect of spatial structure on the evolution of pathogens has had some experimental support which is, however, based on experiments with obligate killing and strictly horizontally transmitting pathogens." https://lnkd.in/dvcWSUt View in LinkedIn

DEFINITION. “Natural selection is the differential survival and reproduction of individuals due to differences in phenotype." (AKA: Differential survival = death: some survive (briefly enough to breed) and some die early; reproduction of the survivors; due to a bell curve of differential talents). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_selection View in LinkedIn

DEFINITION. “Natural selection is the differential survival and reproduction of individuals due to differences in phenotype." (AKA: Differential survival = death: some survive (briefly enough to breed) and some die early; reproduction of the survivors; due to a bell curve of differential talents). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_selection View in LinkedIn

NATURAL SELECTION is at the heart of everything that matters, or so it seems. Researchers have devoted an incredible effort to describe it, and it has even been proposed as being anticipatory for conditions it has never seen. But what is this mystical force? Is it not just the population effects of competition between species, between individuals, between sexes, between instars, and the searing effects of death? Death is at its heart, and without death, natural selection does not thrive. View in LinkedIn