‘Selfish’ genes called introners proven to be a major source of genetic complexity
news.ucsc.edu
UC Santa Cruz researchers are studying the ways certain genetic elements hide and make copies of themselves, so they can propagate within a species’ DNA, or even hop from one species to an unrelated one in a process called “horizontal gene transfer."
    • AmidFuror@fedia.io
      3·
      6 days ago

      Yes. The paper is about transpose or transposable elements which also featured in the Dawkins tome.

  • AmidFuror@fedia.io
    3·
    6 days ago

    As usual, the university press office distorts and over extrapolates what the paper actually accomplished.

    Still cool though. This work traces back the types of transposons responsible for creating introns and identifies at least 8 (?) cases of horizontal transfer.

    The medical implications are nought. We already know about the presence of introns and how variants in introns can sometimes cause disease by misdirecting splicing.