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MARINE VIRAL DARK MATTER. "This “viral dark matter” in metagenomes manifests as an inability to obtain functional or taxonomic annotations for most (63–93%) of surveyed sequence space, as well as an inability to taxonomically annotate the vast majority (>99%) of viral populations observed in nature." http://www.pnas.org/content/113/9/2436.full View in LinkedIn

UNKNOWN HITCHHIKERS. "20% of a nasal swab contains DNA sequences that are completely unknown to science today. In the gut this biological dark matter is 40-50%." https://itunes.com/apps/tedconferences/ted View in LinkedIn

"VIRUSES contain more genetic information than all of life in this planet." (Nathan Wolfe). https://itunes.com/apps/tedconferences/ted View in LinkedIn

PENALTY BOX. “Massive regain of inbreeding depression, particularly following hybridization events, may be a necessary prerequisite for reversals to partial or complete outcrossing.” http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/nph.12182/full View in LinkedIn

VIRAL IMPACT ON OUR EVOLUTION." Viruses were directly involved in differentiating our lineage from the chimpanzee lineage. Viruses were involved in all the major evolutionary transitions." (Professor Lluis Villarreal). This includes the evolution of the mammalian placenta. https://youtu.be/3Ms04x6MvMY View in LinkedIn

CONSIDERED POORLY ADAPTABLE. “A considerable number of eukaryotic species, including many fungi, do not have an apparent sexual cycle and are consequently thought to be limited in their evolutionary potential. As such organisms are expected to have reduced capability to eliminate deleterious mutations, they are often considered as evolutionary dead ends.” https://lnkd.in/eC8eb-V View in LinkedIn

ADAPTATION. “All species continuously evolve to adapt to changing environments. The genetic variation that fosters such adaptation is caused by a plethora of mechanisms, including meiotic recombination that generates novel allelic combinations in the progeny of two parental lineages.” https://lnkd.in/eC8eb-V View in LinkedIn

DATA BUCKET. “With over five decades in their wake, modern studies of plant mating system evolution have yielded data on selfing and outcrossing rates for approximately 500 species and numerous analyses of the history of mating systems, employing a variety of formal models and theoretical and empirical arguments.” http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/nph.12182/full View in LinkedIn

WARM FOOTPRINT. “Selfing may limit purifying or positive selection, but these lineages may not persist long enough to leave footprints of attenuated adaptation in the genome. Phylogenetic studies have shown that the origins of selfing are often rather recent.” http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/nph.12182/full View in LinkedIn

LESS POLYMORPHISM. “There is considerable support for the notion that selfing lineages harbor less nucleotide polymorphism, although it is unclear how genome-wide nucleotide polymorphism is linked to potential adaptive phenotypic evolution.” http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/nph.12182/full View in LinkedIn