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ALTERNATIVE PROMOTOR. "The most important role of HERVs today has nothing to do with transcription or translation. Instead, it is the role of the “fossil promoter”, called the “LTR” (long terminal repeat), which can function as an “alternative promoter” to activate nearby human genes which is the most important function of HERVs in our DNA." https://lnkd.in/eqiWug7 View in LinkedIn

REMNANT SEQUENCES. "Retroviruses invaded the genome of human ancestors over the course of millions of years, yet these viruses generally have been inactivated during evolution, with only remnants of these infectious sequences remaining in the human genome." https://lnkd.in/eqiWug7 View in LinkedIn

FOSSIL VIRUSES. "There are 98,000 fragments of leftover “fossil viruses” in our genomes (HERVs) but none are capable of “self-copying” themselves. In rodents, however, there are many mouse endogenous retroviral elements (MERVs) that are “active” and capable of retrotransposition." https://lnkd.in/eqiWug7 View in LinkedIn

NON-CODING DNA. "Over the past decade, however, scientists have realized that these regions incorporate decisive higher-order regulatory functions. Within the human genome sequences are only 3% coding for proteins and 97% non-coding ones. But these 3% of the protein-coding sequences match with those of the mouse by up to 99%. Highly developed genomes among mammals contain a nearly identical protein-coding vocabulary." https://lnkd.in/e-pJFM6 View in LinkedIn

WORTH REPEATING. Non-coding DNA is "crucial for higher-order regulatory and constitutional functions of protein structural vocabulary." Hardly junk. https://lnkd.in/e-pJFM6 View in LinkedIn

CRUCIAL JUNK. "For decades, non-coding regions of the genome have been ignored or declared as ‘‘junk’’-DNA. Even the non-coding, repetitive DNA sequences which were interpreted as being ancient remnants of former evolutionary stages are now recognized as being of viral descent and crucial for higher-order regulatory and constitutional functions of protein structural vocabulary." https://lnkd.in/e-pJFM6 View in LinkedIn

NON-CODING DNA IMPLICATED IN TYPE II DIABETES. "Our studies illustrate how islet transcription factors interact functionally with the epigenome and provide systematic evidence that the dysregulation of islet enhancers is relevant to the mechanisms underlying type 2 diabetes." https://lnkd.in/ehcd6t4 View in LinkedIn

NON-CODING DNA IS VIRAL. "New research has shown that these non-coding repetitive sequences originated primarily from retroviral RNA. In this way, thousands of endogenous retroviral sequences have been integrated into the human genome, with 22 independent retroviral families currently having been identified." https://lnkd.in/e-pJFM6 View in LinkedIn

MORE FUNCTIONALITY. "In 2012, a research program called the ENCODE project concluded that around three quarters of the noncoding DNA in the human genome did undergo transcription and that almost 50% of the genome was available to the proteins involved in genetic regulation such as transcription factors." https://lnkd.in/eZHPYqA View in LinkedIn

EXAPTATION EXAMPLES. "Hosts infected by viruses found new uses for the genetic material the agents of disease left behind; metabolic enzymes somehow came to refract light rays through the eye’s lens; mammals took advantage of the sutures between the skull bones to help their young pass through the birth canal; and, in the signature example, feathers appeared in fossils before the ancestors of modern birds took to the skies." https://lnkd.in/ehYPdVy View in LinkedIn