Not so selfish after all: Viruses use freeloading genes as weapons

Not so selfish after all: Viruses use freeloading genes as weapons

Curious bits of DNA tucked inside genomes across all kingdoms of life historically have been disregarded since they don’t seem to have a role to play in the competition for survival. Or so researchers thought. These DNA pieces came to be known as “selfish genetic elements” because they exist, as far as scientists could tell, … Read more