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RNA JUMBLE SALES. “According to his theory, dubbed the Virus World, the ancestors of modern viruses emerged when all life was still a floating stew of genetic information, amino acids, and lipids. The earliest pieces of genetic material were likely short pieces of RNA with relatively few genes that often parasitized other floating bits of genetic material to make copies of themselves. These naked pieces of genetic information swapped genes at a primeval genetic flea market, appropriating hand-me-downs from other elements and discarding genes that were no longer needed.” https://lnkd.in/eXmJ-Tt View in LinkedIn

VIRUS FIRST VIEWPOINT. “There are actually relatively few formally-trained evolutionary scientists who will accept the virus-first perspective. I’ve encountered a couple. I’m immersed in a population of traditional evolutionary biologists here at Irvine. They just dismiss it. They don’t even want to think about it. So it’s not a prevailing perspective.” https://lnkd.in/ej7yCCq View in LinkedIn

FRAGMENT FROM NATURE touches on the controversial Virus First Hypothesis for the evolution of life. Much of this Fragment quotes a documentary on the topic, and a later Fragment will focus on related academic publications. The history of science is replete with examples of heretical ideas that were condemned by other scientists, but later became mainstream. Many scientists hate new ideas. View in LinkedIn

RELEVANT EXAMPLE. "In Japan and eastern Europe, species in two rodent lineages have completely eliminated the Y chromosome and replaced SRY with a different gene on a different chromosome. In each lineage the Y-less rodents have recently diverged into three species." https://lnkd.in/ehjz378 View in LinkedIn

VIRUSES CREATED LIFE. “Every plant, every animal, and even humans were created in large part by viruses.” https://lnkd.in/guhpmyR View in LinkedIn

SPECIATION. "Strengthening the argument that sex chromosome turnover begets speciation is evidence of a new round of sex chromosome change and speciation." https://lnkd.in/ehjz378 View in LinkedIn

VIRAL CONSORTIA. “Villarreal thinks we need a new language to deal with the dynamic of viruses, which exist as nonlinear collective entities, i.e., consortia. He considers viruses active organisms that are not only the biggest component of the biomass but comprise 10% of the human genome. Villarreal goes as far as saying that “all living habitats . . . have and must operate in a virosphere” — Ex virus omnia (from virus everything) is his motto.” https://lnkd.in/ej7yCCq View in LinkedIn

DEFINING EVENT. "Sex chromosome change has occurred very rarely in mammals, so it seems significant that each change corresponds to a major divergence. That's why I propose that sex chromosome turnover separated monotremes from the rest of the mammals, and sex chromosome fusion occurred later to separate our lineage from marsupials." https://lnkd.in/ehjz378 View in LinkedIn

NOT IN TREE OF LIFE. “In the last decade metagenomic assessments have led us to realize that viruses are the dominate biological entities of the biosphere and are the most numerous, diverse and dynamic genetic agents on Earth. Although viruses have long been dismissed from the Tree of Life a simply destructive and selfish extra-genomic genetic parasites, comparative genomics now makes it clear that viral colonization distinguishes all domains of life.” Professor Luis Villarreal, a brilliant Virus First proponent. https://lnkd.in/da9vfBg View in LinkedIn

GENE SHORTAGE AND COMPENSATION. "Added to this are problems with gene dosage because the degenerate Y and the W have few genes. If an XY male mates with a ZW female, most of the progeny will be short of genes. There may also be problems with gene dosage because genes on the X and the Z are used to working harder to compensate for their single dosage." https://lnkd.in/ehjz378 View in LinkedIn