Please join Sea Mizin and Artful Nature for the opening of
Sybiont Host at LEA27
2 PM, Sunday, 8 July 2012
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/LEA27/147/232/54
Symbiont Host examines the recent trend in Virology that looks at evolution in a very different way. We now know the human genome is composed of 50% ancient retroviral (RNA) particles and up to an additional 8-10% RNA fully-coded genes that has given us the ability to grow babies within a placenta. This RNA initiates our ability to replicate sexually, transcribe, and repair our genome, all of which is held in the very stable form of DNA.
On the other hand, RNA is highly unstable, prone to high rates of mutation that have the ability to change our not just our genome, but all DNA genomes. We are built of endogenous RNA that has incorporated itself into every cell.
Is it possible to know what new species are on the horizon? What significance is HIV-1 to human sperm? What have we learned from past endogenous retroviral insertions to our genome? Not all these questions have answers, yet we could begin asking them now. More importantly, what approach -- if any -- is appropriate?
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