In previous commentaries (http://dev-evmedreview.pantheonsite.io/?p=1863; http://dev-evmedreview.pantheonsite.io/?p=837; http://dev-evmedreview.pantheonsite.io/?p=385), I have discussed the critical role of extensive B-cell and immunoglobulin gene evolution in...
Last month, Murphy and colleagues (Cell, 2015) published a fascinating report about a patient with an immunodeficiency syndrome that underwent spontaneous resolution. The mechanism for this remarkable outcome points to the importance of somatic cell selection and...
According to estimates by the World Health Organization, in 2013 on the order of 35 million people were infected with HIV worldwide (http://www.who.int/gho/hiv/en/). Globally, about 1.5 million people are believed to have died from AIDS-related diseases in that...
Iron is a critical metal for essential cellular processes, such as respiration, in both human and microbial cells. Thus, in the context of infection, iron is a high-value cellular commodity and an evolutionist might reasonably expect a metallic tug-of-war between...
An article published online at the Nature web site on November 24 (Chou et al., 2014) presents a fascinating study of examples in which bacterial genes have found their way to a number of distinct eukaryotic lineages including ticks and mites, gastropod (e.g.,...