Evolution
Tag archives for Evolution
HIV-1: Humans are all pink on the inside. Pink, and CD4+ T-cells.
Posted by ERV on January 10, 2011 There is some percentage of the population who have a better prognosis if infected with HIV-1 than the rest of us. Remember those pirate flags and sombreros I talk about sometimes? Major histocompatibility complexes, type I. Some people put up HIV-1 flags that are easily recognizable as ‘NOT SELF!!’ to their cytotoxic T-cells, so they…
ERV Starship
Posted by ERV on November 19, 2010 I guess Im going to have to change the name of ‘ERV’. Before I was just concerned. Now, ERVs are officially not so special at all. Viruses, all kinds of viruses, are all over the place in genomes– from insects to humans. Endogenous Viral Elements in Animal Genomes Carl Zimmers take: Your inner viruses: the…
ERV at the Texas Freethought Convention!
Posted by ERV on November 11, 2010 Even though the real ERV is a) hiding in an undisclosed location and b) blinded by a week long migraine from this stress, you can still enjoy me via video taken at the Texas Freethought Convention! First of all, that was an absolutely fantastic introduction. I loved it! I felt like a total ass for…
Extinct retroviruses, ERVs, Frankenstein viruses, and chance
Posted by ERV on November 5, 2010 The endogenous retroviruses in your genome are dead. Dead. Junk. They no longer code for functional, infectious viruses. Those viruses are also extinct. They were floating around thousands, millions of years ago, infecting stuff, and now they are hanging out in your genome instead (100% of humans are infected, *wink*). ERVs are viruses that we…
Endogenous non-retroviral retroviruses: Hepadnaviruses in the bird genome
Posted by ERV on September 29, 2010 Hepatitis B is my favorite non-retrovirus. Why? Because its a retrovirus Heres another reason for me to love it– Its viral family, Hepadnaviridae, inserted themselves into bird genomes 19 million years ago. Genomic Fossils Calibrate the Long-Term Evolution of Hepadnaviruses *happy-prospector-dance* Okay, this is like, the billionth time this has happened in the past few…
Paleovirology– HIV-1s ancestors just got older
Posted by ERV on September 17, 2010 Lentiviruses, we think, are evolutionarily young. For example– you have retroviruses in your DNA (ERVs) from other genuses (genii?) genera of retrovirus that are millions and millions of years old. So we know those other genuses (genii?) genera are millions and millions of years old. Lentiviruses, on the other hand, havent left us many of…
The ERV thats killing koalas: KoRV
Posted by ERV on September 15, 2010 Creationists cant deal with ERVs. They have no answer to the problems ERVs pose to Creationism. They have no alternative explanation for the weight ERVs lend to evilution. However, this doesnt stop Creationists from bluffing/lying to save face in front of the True Believers. One of the more baffling responses Ive gotten to ERVs is…
Quasispecies: FINALLY! A great online resource!
Posted by ERV on August 3, 2010 FINALLY! A free paper that explains the basics of viral quasispecies!!! YAAAAAY!!! Quasispecies Theory and the Behavior of RNA Viruses ARG! I have been wanting a paper like this to come out for AGES! I dont back down from explaining complex topics to you guys, but ‘quasispecies’ is just so weird… I am going to…
Beta Globin and Junk
Posted by ERV on July 26, 2010 Human beta globin has held a special place in my heart due to its rather prominent role in the Evolution-Creation ‘debate’. It just got a neat evolutionary upgrade Humans have one kind of hemoglobin when they are infants which has a higher affinity for O2 (alpha globin + gamma globin), because it makes it easier…
WTF EFVs?? More endogenous non-retroviruses
Posted by ERV on July 8, 2010 One of the scary things about filoviruses (eg Ebola, Marburg)… is that we dont know where they comes from. We know how polio is transmitted. We know how HIV-1 is transmitted. We know how influenza is transmitted. We know how rabies is transmitted. Even if you dont have good vaccines or good therapies, if you…