The diversity of animals is one of the most fascinating aspects of nature. All habitats on the planet, be it land, water, or air, are occupied by species with incredible adaptations to their environment. One way to address the question of how this diversity has evolved is by comparing genes across different species. During evolution, genes can be created, get mutated or duplicated, and even can get lost.
To investigate to what extent gene losses can contribute to different adaptations, Michael Hiller and his colleagues from the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics (MPI-CBG) in Dresden developed a computational method to identify gene losses and systematically searched the genomes of 62 mammals to analyze which genes are lost in which species.
Their findings, published in the journal Nature Communications, highlight a number of previously unknown gene losses that may have occurred as a consequence of a previous, existing adaptation, or – and more interesting – that may have played a direct role in the evolution of a new morphological or physiological adaptation.
A genomics approach reveals insights into the importance of gene losses for mammalian adaptations (open, DOI: 10.1038/s41467-018-03667-1) (DX)
(Score: 3, Interesting) by frojack on Thursday April 05 2018, @10:37PM (5 children)
I wonder if there is a biological or evolutionary burden of carrying around too many genes, left over stuff that got a species through the ice age, or what ever. We are way more efficient at turning food into fat, which probably had a huge advantage in the past. But we no longer have seasonal starvation to worry about.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Thursday April 05 2018, @11:03PM (3 children)
That's mostly a problem for viruses. They can't evolve more genes than will fit in their capsoid.
A friend argued that triple-protein genes are evidence for the existence of G-d: there are start and stop codons that indicate where transcription into RNA and then into protein are supposed to... wait for it... start and stop.
Each codon has three what are the called? The rungs of the DNA ladder. So you can see that it's possible that a completely different protein could conceivably result from being one rung out of phase.
My friend told me that a gene had been discovered that encoded three proteins.
I brought this up with a molecular biologist. He thought it was quite possible for Evolutionary Pressure to cause this.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 2) by KiloByte on Friday April 06 2018, @01:51AM (2 children)
Machine code that has a valid function for every bit shift value (well, 8 bits vs 3 quids), without consisting in 2/3 of filler that's merely syntactically valid? Now that's pretty nice!
Obviously those encoded proteins work worse than they could without such compression, but when code density is paramount...
Ceterum censeo systemd esse delendam.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Azuma Hazuki on Friday April 06 2018, @02:20AM
To paraphrase, "What does God need with a compression algorithm?"
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Friday April 06 2018, @02:35AM
Are you familiar with the usenet post about a machine coder who optimized his programs for magnetic drum storage rotational velocity?
I'd be just like him but my clients wouldn't pay up
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Friday April 06 2018, @09:50AM
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves