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<blockquote data-quote="Old Man Jingles" data-source="post: 4466966" data-attributes="member: 18222"><p><strong><span style="font-size: 26px"><a href="https://www.livescience.com/64394-virus-findings.html" target="_blank">An ancient virus in the human brain</a></span></strong></p><p>Viruses may be behind the human brain's flexibility and intelligence that differentiate humans from other animals.</p><p></p><p>The neurons of animal brains, including human brains, hold the genetic remnants of an ancient viral infection that may be key to how thought processes work, researchers reported in two papers in the journal Cell in January. The researchers discovered that a gene called Arc, which is found in four-limbed animals, is a genetic code leftover from an ancient virus. Moreover, they found that this gene is crucial to nerve cells' ability to build certain types of tiny packages of genetic material and send them off to other nerve cells. This process explains how nerve cells exchange the information that is needed for reorganization of cells.</p><p></p><p>Brain functions including conscious thought and the concept of the "self" may only be possible because of this process, the researchers said. And if the process does not work properly, the synapses, or the junctions between the neurons, may become dysfunctional. More research is needed to understand how the Arc gene became a part of the animal genome, and exactly what information is passed from one neuron to another because of instructions from Arc, they said.</p><p></p><p>Though it may sound surprising that bits of human genetic code come from viruses, it's actually more common than you might think:</p><p>A review published in Cell in 2016 found that between 40 and 80 percent of the human genome arrived from some archaic viral invasion.</p><p><a href="https://www.livescience.com/26505-human-genome-milestones.html" target="_blank">Unraveling the Human Genome: 6 Molecular Milestones</a></p><p></p><p>That's because viruses aren't just critters that try to make a home in a body, the way bacteria do. It injects its genetic code into its host's cells and hijacks them, turning them to its own purposes — typically, that means as factories for making more viruses. This process is usually either useless or harmful to the host, but every once in a while, the injected viral genes are benign or even useful enough to hang around</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]293039[/ATTACH]</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Old Man Jingles, post: 4466966, member: 18222"] [B][SIZE=7][URL='https://www.livescience.com/64394-virus-findings.html']An ancient virus in the human brain[/URL][/SIZE][/B] Viruses may be behind the human brain's flexibility and intelligence that differentiate humans from other animals. The neurons of animal brains, including human brains, hold the genetic remnants of an ancient viral infection that may be key to how thought processes work, researchers reported in two papers in the journal Cell in January. The researchers discovered that a gene called Arc, which is found in four-limbed animals, is a genetic code leftover from an ancient virus. Moreover, they found that this gene is crucial to nerve cells' ability to build certain types of tiny packages of genetic material and send them off to other nerve cells. This process explains how nerve cells exchange the information that is needed for reorganization of cells. Brain functions including conscious thought and the concept of the "self" may only be possible because of this process, the researchers said. And if the process does not work properly, the synapses, or the junctions between the neurons, may become dysfunctional. More research is needed to understand how the Arc gene became a part of the animal genome, and exactly what information is passed from one neuron to another because of instructions from Arc, they said. Though it may sound surprising that bits of human genetic code come from viruses, it's actually more common than you might think: A review published in Cell in 2016 found that between 40 and 80 percent of the human genome arrived from some archaic viral invasion. [URL='https://www.livescience.com/26505-human-genome-milestones.html']Unraveling the Human Genome: 6 Molecular Milestones[/URL] That's because viruses aren't just critters that try to make a home in a body, the way bacteria do. It injects its genetic code into its host's cells and hijacks them, turning them to its own purposes — typically, that means as factories for making more viruses. This process is usually either useless or harmful to the host, but every once in a while, the injected viral genes are benign or even useful enough to hang around [ATTACH=full]293039[/ATTACH] [/QUOTE]
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