UGA STUDY OF RETROVIRUSES SHOWS HUMAN-SPECIFIC VARIETY DEVELOPED WHEN HUMANS, CHIMPS DIVERGED

The University of Georgia news bureau ^ | Thursday, August 1, 2002 | Phil Williams

[forsnax5]

ATHENS, Ga. — Scientists in the past decade have discovered that remnants of ancient germ line infections called human endogenous retroviruses make up a substantial part of the human genome. Once thought to be merely "junk" DNA and inactive, many of these elements, in fact, perform functions in human cells.

[Junior]

LBB'll just claim (without reading the article, which has a lot of big words he may not understand) that this proves evolution is impossible.

[Gumlegs]

Where the blue of the right
Meets the cold light of day ...

< /Bingcrosby>

[Junior]

If a mutation occurs in an individual to produce a new species, what organism does that individual mate with to perpetuate the species?

Speciation does not occur in an individual, but within a population. The population gradually changes over thousands of generations. If, for some reason, a population is split into two or more separate populations (a mountain range bisects its range, for example), the separate populations will gradually diverge from one another giving rise to two separate species.

[jpsb]

A good read, thanks

[VadeRetro]

I'm disgusted that the author of the article doesn't really understand punctuated equilibrium, equating it with sort of a Goldsmith "Hopeful Monster" theory. But the idea that retrovirus material is in there still competing with the original host DNA for replication is new to me and fascinating. Intramural competition within the DNA strand!

[facedown]

Bump

[forsnax5]

I'm disgusted that the author of the article doesn't really understand punctuated equilibrium, equating it with sort of a Goldsmith "Hopeful Monster" theory.

I didn't read "sudden and unexpected changes" as "Hopeful Monster," but rather as "geologically sudden" (i.e. thousands of years).

Take a small, geographically isolated group of ancestral primates and give them an unusual but relatively benign viral infection that causes gradual changes in the geneome and, over a couple of hundred generations, this group becomes "different."

By the way, this idea means the "Intelligent Designer" is actually a bad cold... ;)

[VadeRetro]

Reading it again, I think you're right. The people who want to misunderstand things will always find ways to do so anyway.

By the way, this idea means the "Intelligent Designer" is actually a bad cold... ;)

LOL!

[Nebullis]

There's some evidence that repeated retrotransposition of HERV's took place. I don't find anything new in this study.

[VadeRetro]

Goldsmith

Goldschmidt, Richard.

[PatrickHenry]

... the idea that retrovirus material is in there still competing with the original host DNA for replication is new to me and fascinating. Intramural competition within the DNA strand!

This isn't my field, but it seems to me that once the material gets established in the DNA, it's no different from a mutated portion of the DNA. The DNA chain doesn't care where it came from.

[VadeRetro]

I'm still absorbing it. The idea involves a tug-o-war for the regulatory stuff. Like authors fighting for a publisher, that sort of thing. It's beyond that, in fact. It's like a war for the genome space.

I can't tell if the theory is tinfoil or "widely accepted." Brain hurt!

[Wonder Warthog]

"For example, there very well could be some warthog DNA in Janet Reno's distant past."

PLEASE! No self-respecting Warthog would have gotten within "ten-foot-pole" distance of any of Janet Reno's ancestors. The proof is that all Warthogs are FAR BETTER LOOKING than JR.

[dirtboy]

PLEASE! No self-respecting Warthog would have gotten within "ten-foot-pole" distance of any of Janet Reno's ancestors.

Maybe they were, you know, really well-endowed...

[Nebullis]

...it seems to me that once the material gets established in the DNA, it's no different from a mutated portion of the DNA.

The difference is in the particular sequence, as you can well imagine. The HERV sequences carry instructions for transcription, translation, and reintroduction into other parts of the genome (like "jumping genes"). Those events would be as invasive as any new virus entering the cell.

[Wonder Warthog]

"Maybe they were, you know, really well-endowed..."

Indeed, but none of them would have had such INCREDIBLY BAD TASTE. I mean, a LIMP ten-foot-pole isn't useful for much of anything.

[ASA Vet]

there very well could be some warthog DNA in Janet Reno's distant past

Wonder Warthog, what do you have to say?
Is it true that your ancestors are responsible?

[ASA Vet]

Oops, Please disregard my post #37.
That'll teach me to read the entire thread
before making a smart alect remark.

I see you've already defended the honor of your warthog ancestors.

[Gumlegs]

all Warthogs are FAR BETTER LOOKING than JR.

This is true even in your case.

[Gumlegs]

Aologize to dirtboy! That should have been directed to Wonder Warthog! (Who still has his snout!).