3 ms·
A few years ago I read Nick Lane’s The vital Question, which explored “junk DNA” extensively, in the context of abiogenesis. The analogy I particularly liked w
by madaxe_again 8y ago
A few years ago I read Nick Lane’s The vital
Question, which explored “junk DNA” extensively, in the context of abiogenesis.
The analogy I particularly liked was that they are little turing machines, and the very original stuff of life - indiscriminate, self-replicating, and therefore part of the bootstrap for everything that came after.
Also, more on LiNE. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retrotransposon#LINEs https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retrotransposon#LINEs
- otherme123 8y agoThey're not self-auto-replicating. They need the host cell machinery to do so, thus they can not be the original stuff of life. They are a very specialized DNA chunks that retains the absolute bare minimal needs to trick a host to replicate them. They are parasites.