Sunday, June 26, 2016

Species biology as major determinants of genetic diversity

I recently found a Nature paper: Comparative population genomics in animals uncovers the determinants of genetic diversity  reporting findings on determinants of genetic diversity, which is well anticipated by the MGD theory.

The authors said:"Our analysis reveals that polymorphism levels are well predicted by species biology, whereas historical and contingent factors are only minor determinants of the genetic diversity of a species."

So, as we have said all along since 2008, genetic diversity in most cases have nothing to do with effective population size or bottle necks. It is largely determined by species complexity, which is the most important aspect of species biology. 

It is really great and satisfying to see that others have independently come to our point of view, even though they have yet to fully acknowledge our series of papers published since 2008.

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Monday, June 20, 2016

Genomics: Special issue on the comprehensive functionality of genomic DNA

Genomics special issue to dump the junk DNA notion to junk yards

#genomics #genetics Editorial: Special issue on the comprehensive functionality of ge... https://t.co/9FtaDo9IZthttps://t.co/oR40nVo503

From the editorial by Huang: “About 80% of the human genome are transcribed but how much of it is functional is under hot debate. As one would immediately know if one takes an honest look at all the facts, the junk DNA position really is just hot air: it is neither supported by facts nor by axioms or self-evident logical reasoning, and has already been falsified by the failure of the universal molecular clock hypothesis. In fact, the exact opposite of neutrality should now become the null hypothesis because it is free of factual contradictions and accounts for all known facts.”