@Pierre there is possibly an error in the sentence above: the E-O boundary is dated 37 Mya.
Mass Extinctions, Evolutionary Leaps, and the Virus-Information Connection
- Thread starter Pierre
- Start date
good catch! Yes it is a mistake. It is now corrected.
Stella Marys
Jedi Master
THANK YOU Pierre for your generosity! Before I continue reading the material, I wanted to pass on my thanks to you.
On the other hand, is it possible that you could show us how is your gesture representing the information field? Apparently, you have a trademark.
I ask this, because every time the words "information field" appear in a conversation, I automatically guess what could be the gesture that represents this concept, but it is just a guess. Non-verbal language is also important to illustrate an idea, it can even enhance it in many cases.
Well, again THANK YOU for sharing your monumental effort with us! It is very, very much appreciated!
On the other hand, is it possible that you could show us how is your gesture representing the information field? Apparently, you have a trademark.
I ask this, because every time the words "information field" appear in a conversation, I automatically guess what could be the gesture that represents this concept, but it is just a guess. Non-verbal language is also important to illustrate an idea, it can even enhance it in many cases.
Well, again THANK YOU for sharing your monumental effort with us! It is very, very much appreciated!
It should be Chicxulub.
There is no black arrow on the graph below.
Corrected in the main file and in the post
Corrected in the main file and in the post.
It was not the correct graph. Good catch. It is corrected now in the main file and in the post.
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Interesting!! If we have so many viruses around us and inside out bodies right down to the DNA then we ought not to call them "viruses". They are more like self-aware consciousness units connected with the Information field. Not only do they help create and evolve life, in turn assisting in soul development but, on the other hand they also help in body-death via "diseases" when the soul is not making the best use of it.
Chapter 14: Beneficial Viruses
Exogenous viruses
The evolutionary role played by viruses is huge compared to their pathogenicity. Out of the estimated 100 million different species of viruses mentioned in the previous chapter, only about 200[1], in other terms a mere 0.0002%, might cause diseases in humans.
These 200 viruses are only sometimes pathogenic, most carriers are asymptomatic. On top of that, some of these 200 documented viral “pathogens” can also induce beneficial effects; it’s for example the case of the widespread Herpes virus and cytomegalovirus.
© Commons Wikimedia
Representation of HSV-1 Herpes virus
Indeed, both Herpes virus and cytomegalovirus exhibits either detrimental or beneficial effects depending on the state of the host’s immune system:
Herpesvirus and cytomegaloviruses are not isolated cases. A virus as common as the flu, believed until recently to be solely a pathogenic agent, is now known to be beneficial by making people more sociable[3]. Notice some subjects in this study had the pro-social benefit of the virus without experiencing any symptoms.
The benefits of viruses are numerous, for example, they enhance the protection of their hosts against bacterial infections[4], they help alternative routes of carbon metabolism during infection[5] and they stimulate the creation of heat shock proteins[6] (HSPs) during times of stress[7]. HSPs are involved in processes as fundamental as:
An even stunning example virus-host synergy comes from parasitic wasps have domesticated viruses that cannot replicate outside the wasps. When injected inside a prey, the viruses neutralized the host’s immune system, so it doesn’t attack the eggs laid by the wasp inside the body of the host:
© Burke
Life cycle of parasitoid wasps and Polydnaviruses parasitizing a lepidopteran larval host
But maybe the best example of the health benefits induced by viruses is the use of bacteriophages in the treatment of bacterial diseases:
For reference, untreated inhalation anthrax has a fatality rate of 80% or higher[11].
The examples above show how prevalent and vital viruses are in animal life forms, including humans. But the same goes for plants:
One of the main purposes of viruses used by botanists is to improve the beauty of a given plant:
Some of the best characterized beneficial viruses that have been used in plants are those that enhance the beauty of ornamental plants. Tulip breaking virus was the first of a long list of the beautiful viruses, but many other prized ornamentals owe their value, at least in part, to the viruses that infect them[13]
© Norton Simon Museum
Gouache before 1640 - effect of Tulip breaking virus: streaks of white in its red petals
But the beneficial role played by viruses in plants goes way beyond esthetics:
Like in the human genome, viruses have been present in plants genome for a long time:
Endoretroviruses
Although the list of benefit provided by exogenous viruses to their hosts is substantial, it is nothing compared to ERVs.
We’ve seen previously the pivotal role played by ERVs in the apparition of a number of new complex taxa: wallabies, humans, great apes, vertebrates, eukaryotes, jawed vertebrates, teleost fishes Lepidoptera and of course placentals.[16]
For the latter we’ve seen how ERVs were the driver of the apparition of the placentals, including virtually all mammals. Before that reproductive strategies were based on egg-laying.
Like most exogenous viruses, ERVs don’t cause diseases:
But the fact that the numerous viral sequences found in our DNA are not pathogenic doesn’t mean that they are useless archaism. Actually their integration of ERVs in the host’s genome provides benefits:
ERVs are part of what was called “junk DNA”[19], which, for decades, was considered as useless DNA stored away during “evolutionary selection”. This kind of DNA represents about 90%[20] of our genome. But it is now called non-coding DNA because modern genomic has revealed that the junk DNA is not junk at all. One prime example is “gene desert”:
In addition, the common belief that ERVs are non-coding is generally true, but yet there are exceptions for example HERV-K[22] is known to code HDTV[23].
Out of 500 env genes[24], 16 can code for proteins and are abundantly transcribed in key organs like the brain, the thyroid or the adrenal:
© de Parseval
Transcriptome of the coding retroviral envelope genes of the human genome in 19 human tissues
In addition to directing genes expression, ERVs have an uncanny ability to modify the existing genome of their hosts, viral and non-viral sequences included:
Despite the recent advent of genomics, there are already numerous examples of beneficial effects induced by endogenous viruses, for example ERVs play a fundamental role in protecting their hosts from ongoing epidemics:
Another example of beneficial effect induced by ERVs is their involvement in the regulation of the expression of useful coding genes:
ERVs are involved in the detection and fight against cancer:
And ERVs are also necessary for embryo development from the earliest stage:
Maybe the fundamental role played by ERVs in morphogenesis as emphasized in the quote above explains why viruses played also a pivotal role in what can be consider as the greatest evolutionary leap, namely the transition from unicellular organisms to multicellular ones:
The above shows the prevalence of viruses in our genetic code and the vital role they play. This perspective provides a different spin to the on-going question about whether viruses are life forms or not. The answer to this question amply depends on the definition one gives to the word “life”.
In the light of the quote above, viruses seem more fundamental than even life itself; they are the information carriers -genetic codes- from which biological life stems. Viruses are more than life; they are the very source of life; they are the informational precursors, the initiators of every single lifeform:
ERVs are involved in a multitude of fundamental functions amongst which, altering and promoting amylase gene, expressing host genes or to facilitating splicing events:
Another example is how transposable elements (sequences of viral origin) are involved in a number of vital processes from immunity to apoptosis (cellular death) regulation[35]:
© Lorenc
Functional classification of the Transposable Elements proteins.
[1] The exact number of potentially pathogenic virus in human in exactly 219 as of 2012. Notice also that, on average, 3 to 4 potentially pathogenic viruses in human are discovered every year. See:
Woolhouse, Mark et al. (2012). “Human viruses: discovery and emergence.” Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences vol. 367,1604 (2012): 2864-71.
[2] Tokuyama, Maria et al. (2018). “ERVmap analysis reveals genome-wide transcription of human endogenous retroviruses”. PNAS, 115 (50) 12565-12572;
[3] Reiber C. et al. (2010) “Change in human social behavior in response to a common vaccine”. Ann Epidemiol. 20(10):729-33.
[4] Sherman LA, Pauw P. (1976) “Infection of Synechococcus cedrorum by the cyanophage AS-1M. II. Protein and DNA synthesis”. Virology.;71(1):17-27
[5] Sullivan MB et al. (2005) “Three Prochlorococcus Cyanophage Genomes: Signature Features and Ecological Interpretations” PLOS Biology 3(5): e144
[6] Key proteins involved in proteins folding, transport and assembly. HSP’s are also involved in apoptosis and immune response.
[7] Wan, Q. et al. (2020). “Stress proteins: the biological functions in virus infection, present and challenges for target-based antiviral drug development”. Sig Transduct Target 5, 125
[8] Ibid
[9] Burke, G. R. et al. (2012). ‘’Polydnaviruses of Parasitic Wasps: Domestication of Viruses To Act as Gene Delivery Vectors’’. Insects, 3(1), 91–119.
[10] K. Moelling (2020) “Viruses More Friends than Foes” Electroanalysis 32, 669.
[11] FDA Editors (2018) “anthrax” FDA
[12] Roossinck, M.J. (2015) “Beneficial viruses for crops” Molecular Plant Pathology 16: 331-333.
[13] Ibid
[14] Ibid
[15] Roossinck, M.J. (2012) “Plant virus metagenomics: biodiversity and ecology” Annu. Rev. Genet. 46, 357–367
[16] See chapter ‘’The Enigma of Speciation’’
[17] Tokuyama, Maria et al. (2018) “ERVmap analysis reveals genome-wide transcription of human endogenous retroviruses”. PNAS, 115 (50) 12565-12572
[18] de Parseval N. et al. (2005) “Human endogenous retroviruses: from infectious elements to human genes”. Cytogenet Genome Res. 110(1-4):318-32
[19] TR, ed. (2005) “The Evolution of the Genome” Elsevier. pp. 29–31
[20] Ponting, C.P. (2011) "What fraction of the human genome is functional?" Genome Research. 21 (11): 1769–76
[21] Ovcharenko, Ivan et al. (2004) "Evolution and Functional Classification of Vertebrate Gene Deserts" Genome Research 15 (1): 137–145
[22] Boller K. et al. (1993) “Evidence that HERV-K is the endogenous retrovirus sequence that codes for the human teratocarcinoma-derived retrovirus HTDV”.Virology. 196(1):349-53
[23] Human Teratocarcinoma-Derived Virus particles
[24] Genes of viral origin
[25] Srinivasachar Badarinarayan S., Sauter D. (2021) “Switching Sides: How Endogenous Retroviruses Protect Us from Viral Infections” J Virol. 95(12):e02299-20
[26] Ibid
[27] Tokuyama M et al. (2018) “ERVmap analysis reveals genome-wide transcription of human endogenous retroviruses”. PNAS 115:12565–72
[28] Ibid
[29] Wikipedia contributors (2021) “Multicellular organism” Wikipedia
[30] Wickramasinghe, 2013
[31] Assemblage of viruses that are associated with a particular ecosystem
[32] David Skripac (2021) “Our Species is Being Genetically Modified: Humanity’s March Toward Extinction?” Global Research
[33] Enzyme that transforms starch into sugars
[34] Eiden M. V. (2008) “Endogenous retroviruses--aiding and abetting genomic plasticity” Cellular and molecular life sciences 65(21), 3325–3328
[35] Lorenc, Anna et al. (2003) “Transposable Elements and Vertebrate Protein Diversity” Genetica 118. 183-91. 10.1023
[36] Feschotte, C., Gilbert, C. (2012) “Endogenous viruses: insights into viral evolution and impact on host biology” Nat Rev Genet 13, 283–296
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