The Arc gene, which is critical for animals’ ability to learn from experiences, has an incredible origin story.
https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2018/01/brain-cells-can-share-information-using-a-gene-that-came-from-viruses/550403/
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The Arc gene, which is critical for animals’ ability to learn from experiences, has an incredible origin story.
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Dave_C » Tue Jan 16, 2018 4:06 pm wrote:Very interesting! I wonder if Arc is part of our genome, produced by it, or something else?
The team showed that Arc descends from an ancient group of genes called gypsy retrotransposons, which exist in the genomes of various animals, but can behave like their own independent entities.* They can make new copies of themselves, and paste those duplicates elsewhere in their host genomes. At some point, some of these genes gained the ability to enclose themselves in a shell of proteins and leave their host cells entirely. That was the origin of retroviruses—the virus family that includes HIV.
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