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RELATIVE DIFFERENCES. "Even closely related species with very similar biological properties and the same ploidy level can differ significantly in genome size." http://journals.plos.org/plosgenetics/article?id=10.1371/journal.pgen.1004351 View in LinkedIn

LARGE GENOMES. "Organisms that have very large genomes are not few in number or outliers—for example, of the >200 salamander genomes analyzed thus far, all are between four and 35 times larger than the human genome." http://journals.plos.org/plosgenetics/article?id=10.1371/journal.pgen.1004351 View in LinkedIn

UNRELATED TO COMPLEXITY. "Genome size varies independently of intuitive notions of organism complexity or presumed number of protein-coding genes. For example, a human genome contains eight times more DNA than that of a pufferfish but is 40 times smaller than that of a lungfish." http://journals.plos.org/plosgenetics/article?id=10.1371/journal.pgen.1004351 View in LinkedIn

"GENOME SIZE varies enormously among species: at least 7,000-fold among animals and 350-fold even within vertebrates." http://journals.plos.org/plosgenetics/article?id=10.1371/journal.pgen.1004351 View in LinkedIn

JUNK DNA APOLOGIST AND CONTRARIANS (Alexander Palazzo, and T. Ryan Gregory, among others) make the case that most non-coding DNA has (so far) not had a function assigned to it. They raise excellent points about how little we know about their functioning. Since the majority of the genome is non-coding DNA, genome size differences are of considerable relevance. Deep dive to follow. https://lnkd.in/eT5V5Xc View in LinkedIn

NON-CODING DNA, formerly "junk-DNA" continues to pose a remarkable challenge to geneticists and evolutionary scientists. On one hand, the Viral World camp with ever-expanding regulatory roles for these RNAs are eroding the old and outworn concept of functionless junk; but there are still apologists for junk DNA whose argument resides in the fact we cannot (yet) ascribe all the functions to that big non-coding chunk of genomes. A work in process. View in LinkedIn

Chan Zuckerberg Initiative will invest $3 billion to cure disease http://money.cnn.com/2016/09/21/technology/chan-zuckerberg-initiative-3-billion-health-disease/index.html View in LinkedIn

IMPORTANCE OF GUT MICROBES ON BRAIN AND BEHAVIOR. "We report that colonization by gut microbiota impacts mammalian brain development and subsequent adult behavior." https://lnkd.in/e7Pmtsp View in LinkedIn

China's giant space telescope starts search for alien life View in LinkedIn

"EARLY LIFE environmental influences have a profound impact on the organism's later development, structure, and function. This phenomenon is called “developmental programming"...exerts effects that impact on structure and function of organs that, in some cases, will persist throughout life. One such environmental factor is the gut microbiota that, because of an evolutionary process, has adapted to coexist in commensal or symbiotic relationship with mammals." https://lnkd.in/e7Pmtsp View in LinkedIn