The Role of Retroviruses in Human Evolution

mhackarbie writes "The current edition of the New Yorker magazine has up a story about endogenous retroviruses in the genomes of humans and other species. Although researchers have known about such non-functional retroviral 'fossils' in the human genome for some time, the large amount of recent genomic data underscores just how pervasive they are, in a compelling tale that involves humans, their primate cousins, and a variety of viral invaders. Some researchers are even bringing back non-functional viral remnants from the dead by fixing their broken genes."

First

[Anonymous Coward]

First Infection

Re:Bringing back the dead?

[Anonymous Coward]

Zombie viruses, huh? Now might be a good time to take stock in really tiny shotguns.

Re:Oh no!

[krel]

You're right, we should never research diseases. We might infect ourselves with them.

The thing about retroviruses...

[Anonymous Coward]

See the thing about retroviruses is that once they work their way into the genome, they begin to do wack things. They predispose the person to wear bell bottom geans, listen to funk music, wear tube socks, and any number of out of fashion things. They begin to force the person to speak in archaic manners, eg "Thou hast been up intowards my grill!" So I think it's safe to say that we need to eliminate retroviruses as a mechanism of mutation. There comes a time to let certain things go.

Re:Bringing back the dead?

[Anonymous Coward]

But only after we find a way to shrink Simon Pegg small enough to use them!

Re:The thing about retroviruses...

[morgan_greywolf]

Hey! I resembleth thine remark, thou clod insensitiveth!

Re:Bringing back the dead?

[Oktober Sunset]

Either way, lawyers die, which shows there is no downside meddling in genetic engineering.

Re:Bringing back the dead?

[eniac42]

Why, its a plan that is almost entirely without a drawback, as far as I can see..

Re:The thing about retroviruses...

[Tablizer]

Groovy!

Next up:

[Lost Penguin]

Umbrella Corporation unavailable for comment.

Re:Bringing back the dead?

[Solra Bizna]

Is this a bad time to point out that you may just have missed a comma? :P

-:sigma.SB

Re:Cambrian explosion?

[Tablizer]

Some people take offense at implying their ancestry is of apes, imagine now that it's actually a hodgepodge from all sorts of animals like ducks and sea cucumbers. . .

Not if you've seen some of my dates [drum hit].