Ancient Viruses, Once Foes, May Now Serve as Friends
Excerpt 1) “A new study published in the journal Nature on Monday suggests that endogenous retroviruses spring to life in the earliest stages of the development of human embryos. The viruses may even assist in human development by helping guide embryonic development and by defending young cells from infections by other viruses.”
Excerpt 2) “Dr. Wysocka acknowledged that the evidence she and her colleagues had gathered was only suggestive at this point. But whatever the viruses are up to, Dr. Wysocka argued, they are doing something important during the development of human embryos.
“This is a completely new thing that we need to be considering,” she said.”
My comment: See: “The Darwin Code” by Greg Bear
Excerpt 1) “What I needed, I thought, was some analog to what happens in bacteria. And so I would have to invent ancient viruses lying dormant in our genome, suddenly reactivated to ferry genes and genetic instructions between humans.”
Excerpt 2) “Cells talk to each other through chemistry and gene transfer. And through sexual recombination, pheromonal interaction, and viruses, multicellular organisms communicate with each other and thus become nodes in a species-wide network.
On the next level, through predation and parasitism, as well as through cross-species exchange of genes, an ecosystem becomes a network in its own right, an interlinking of species both cooperating and competing, often at the same time.
Networks from beehives to brains solve problems through the exchange and the selective cancellation and modification of signals. Species and organisms in ecosystems live and die like signals in a network.”
My comment: Carl Zimmer “…suggests that endogenous retroviruses spring to life in the earliest stages of the development of human embryos.” Suddenly, viruses are alive — if you believe people like Zimmer.
What Dr. Wysocka claims is “…a completely new thing that we need to be considering…” explains how the biophysically constrained chemistry of nutrient-dependent RNA-mediated amino acid substitutions links the epigenetic landscape to the physical landscape of DNA in the organized genomes of species from bacteria to humans. This is not a “…completely new thing…” It was placed into the context of ecological variation and nutrient-dependent pheromone-controlled ecological adaptations by Greg Bear in 1999 and in 2003.
Dobzhansky (1964) and Dobzhansky (1973) presaged all accurate representations of biologically-based cause and effect.
What has been known to serious scientists and at least one science fiction novelist has been ignored by evolutionary theorists for at least 50 years because what is known refutes their theories.
Watch as Carl Zimmer and others weasel their way out of descriptions of HERVs as genomic parasites.
Other pieces, called transposable elements, were like parasites, simply making new copies of themselves that were usually inserted harmlessly back in the genome. March 5, 2015
“Mostly, these genetic fragments are generally nothing more than molecular fossils. Over thousands of generations, they have mutated so much that they cannot replicate in our cells. And our cells keep the viral DNA muzzled to minimize the harm it might cause.” April 23, 2015
Invasion of genomic parasites triggered modern mammalian pregnancy
HERVs are not genetic fragments and they are not molecular fossils. HERVs link viral microRNAs and entropic elasticity to nutrient-dependent microRNAs and pheromone-controlled protein biosynthesis and degradation, which links ecological variation to ecological adaptation in species from microbes to humans.
See also: A functional extracellular transcriptome in animals? implications for biology, disease and medicine
Excerpt 1) “…around 10 years ago, it became clear that in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans short interfering RNAs are transported in between cells, and uptake of RNA from the environment was reported in both C. elegans and several insect species.”
Excerpt 2) “The author reports that he is a paid scientific advisor to Miroculus, Inc., which is developing a platform for microRNA detection, including of extracellular microRNAs present in body fluids.
My comment: I have no commercial interests in linking what is known about the balance of viral microRNAs and nutrient-dependent microRNAs via RNA-directed DNA methylation and RNA-mediated amino acid substitutions that differentiate all cell types of all individuals of all genera. My commercial interests involve linking nutritional epigenetics and pharmacogenomics in attempts to help others who are interested in combating evolution to fight disease by placing what is known about the physiology of pheromone-controlled reproduction into its proper context as I have continued to do for more than 2 decades. See: Perfuming the Mind.com, Pheromones.com and Scent of Eros.com
Related Genomic Parasites Current Events and Genomic Parasites News Articles
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Most organisms, including humans, have parasitic DNA fragments called “jumping genes” that insert themselves into DNA molecules, disrupting genetic instructions in the process.
Why our prehistoric, parasitic ‘jumping’ genes don’t send us into meltdown
A team of researchers, led by academics at The University of Nottingham, has explained why the so-called ‘jumping genes’ found in most living organisms don’t ultimately kill off their hosts, putting an end to a long-standing scientific mystery.
Bacteria from hot springs reveal clues to evolution of early life and to unlock biofuels’ potential
A bacteria that lives in hot springs in Japan may help solve one of the mysteries of the early evolution of complex organisms, according to a study publishing next week in PLoS Biology. It may also be the key to 21st century biofuel production.
Parasites ready to jump
Transposons are mobile genetic elements found in the hereditary material of humans and other organisms. They can replicate and the new copies can insert at novel sites in the genome.