"Human intervention has subjected the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae to multiple rounds of independent domestication and thousands of generations of artificial selection.... [W]e have produced whole-genome assemblies of six commercial strains of S. cerevisiae (four wine and two brewing strains).... By comparing these sequences to six existing high-coverage S. cerevisiae genome assemblies, clear signatures were found that defined each industrial class of yeast. This genetic variation was comprised of both single nucleotide polymorphisms and large-scale insertions and deletions, with the latter often being associated with ORF heterogeneity between strains. This included the discovery of more than twenty probable genes that had not been identified previously in the S. cerevisiae genome. Comparison of this large number of S. cerevisiae strains also enabled the characterization of a cluster of five ORFs that have integrated into the genomes of the wine and bioethanol strains on multiple occasions and at diverse genomic locations via what appears to involve the resolution of a circular DNA intermediate [illustrated]. This work suggests that, despite the scrutiny that has been directed at the yeast genome, there remains a significant reservoir of ORFs and novel modes of genetic transmission that may have significant phenotypic impact in this important model and industrial species."

The affected gene, designated GTAp63, is among the homologs of p53, and is most closely related to TAp63. The big difference is that its upstream end begins with a long terminal repeat (LTR) sequence contributed by the virus. This sequence promotes the transcription of three upstream exons (red rectangles in figure below) that would otherwise be omitted. When DNA damage is detected in a germline cell, this gene produces an enzynme that supresses proliferation and induces apoptosis (cell death). The gene also appears to supress testicular cancer in humans.

The research team, from Germany and the USA, comment, "In Hominidae, this guardian function was greatly enhanced by integration of an endogenous retrovirus upstream of the TP63 locus that occurred 15 million years ago. By providing increased germ-line stability, this event may have contributed to the evolution of hominids and enabled their long reproductive periods."

Interestingly, another insertion of an ERV9 apparently restored a different gene in the primate lineage, before gibbons and hominids diverged. In fact, known instances of beneficial genetic programs or subroutines installed by viruses, in all of life's domains, are accumulating steadily, as expected in cosmic ancestry.

"Our finding that one of the largest metabolic gene clusters moved by HGT between fungi suggests that nonvertical transmission of the numerous metabolic gene clusters present in fungal genomes might have significantly contributed to the remarkable metabolic diversity of fungi.... [T]he increasing number of reported HGT events between fungi adds support to the notion that HGT-acquired DNA is a significant contributor to fungal genome remodeling."

HGT among eukaryotes is becoming increasingly apparent. Here we see that even a 23-gene cluster may be functionally transferred. We hope darwinists will notice.

Genes that are older than darwinism would indicate and genes that appear suddenly, without apparent precursors, are basic predictions of cosmic ancestry.

Now another correlation is noted. "...Liquid water seems to be the key.... We can tell how much these asteroids were altered by liquid water by analyzing the minerals their meteorites contain. The more these asteroids were altered, the greater the excess L-isovaline we found. This indicates some process involving liquid water favors the creation of left-handed amino acids."

On Earth, isovaline is a rare amino acid that is not among the 20 essential for life. But we wonder, could it be used by life elsewhere? Or, could it be a byproduct of life's amino acids, degraded after long exposure in space? Anyway, life is the only process we know of that efficiently makes exclusively left-handed amino acids. And life depends on water. Obviously, past life in water on the parent bodies of these meteorites is one good way to explain the new data. But NASA's press release gives no indication that this possibility ever entered their minds. Really?

The independent evolution of electrical communication signaling in African mormyroid fishes and South American gymnotiform fishes is another example of convergence. A recent analysis by evolutionary biologists concludes that the African and South American species arose separately, from nonelectrogenic ancestors, more than 100 million years after their lineages diverged.

Darwinian theory might as well call it coincidence, because the evolution of nearly identical features, in unrelated species, entirely by mutation-and-selection, is unlikely. However, in cosmic ancestry, life's genetic programming is as old as life. After arrival, the programs must often remain silent for long evolutionary times, until the circumstances for their successful deployment arise. If so, we are not surprised if identical features that depend on the same genetic programming eventually crop up in long-diverged branches of the tree of life.

We note that a universal genome that precedes the appearance of the complex features encoded by it is fairly indistinguishable cosmic ancestry. For one difference, the author (pictured) assumes that genes are [only?] vertically inherited; his paper does not mention horizontal gene transfer (HGT). He gives no explanation for the "origin" of this universal genome, but observes, logically, that it must have been extant before it began to be expressed. We felt strongly supported by the thrust of the paper, which is available in PDF online. Some passages we especially noticed:

The appearance in evolution of the entire Metazoan fauna seems to have been very sudden.
It appears that emergence of multicellular animals coincided with a dramatic increase in genome complexity in terms of both gene number and appearance of entirely novel gene families.
...One does not expect to find genes responsible for development of bilateral organisms in primitive Metazoa with radial symmetry. Surprisingly, such genes, e.g., orthologs of hox genes, were found in Cnidaria....
Though sea urchin lacks eyes and, of course, brain, it has six opsins, belonging to several families found in humans, Drosophila, Scallops and other groups. While the presence of the opsins could be explained by their possible function in a simple light sensing, sea urchin has the entire set of orthologs of major genes involved in the eye development....
Another surprise came from a complexity of compo­nents of the immune system in sea urchin.... Genes that are seemingly useless in sea urchin but are very useful in higher taxons exemplify excessive genetic information in lower taxons.
It is unclear how such genetic complexity could have evolved. In fact, the seemingly excessive complexity probably cannot be explained within the classical model in principle....
A possible response to these arguments within the classical model would be a sugges­tion that the genes responsible for eye development in Arthropoda or vertebrates serve different functions in lower taxons (so-called gene sharing). ...These examples, however, are exceptionally rare, and it is unclear whether they indeed can be responsible for making de-novo complex developmental programs from genes serving unrelated functions. The plausibility of this hypothesis at the very minimum is questionable....
...How does it happen that convergently evolved systems have [the] same developmental switches? These findings are very difficult to explain within the context of Darwinian ideas.
...What we perceive as a sequential evolution is actually a reflection of expression of one or another combination of programs from the Universal Genome.
...Genetic evolution in combination with natural selection could define microevolution, however, within this model it is not responsible for the emergence of the major developmental programs.
...Explanation within the proposed model is quite obvious. The program of eye development has been present in the Universal Genome, and is latent in the majority of Cnidaria, and actually other, even more developed animal groups. This program however was turned on in Cubozoa, and led to the eye development in this group.... The program is poorly tuned resulting in an under-focused eye, suggesting that the Universal Genome contains relatively rough programs, and tuning the programs could occur through Darwinian mutation-selection mechanisms.

In cosmic ancestry, HGT is essential for macroevolutionary progress. If so, it will be far more common than predicted by darwinian theory. These two researchers strongly affirm the ubiquity of HGT, and thus, indirectly and unintentionally, strengthen the case for cosmic ancestry. Here are additional selected passages from the study:

"...Genes can be transferred between living cells not related by heredity, and subsequently expressed. Comparative genomics indicate the widespread and frequent presence of this so-called 'horizontal gene transfer' (HGT) between organisms, not only those that are closely-related but also those that are distant taxa. Metagenomic surveys also quantify the unsuspected extent of the abundance of mobile genetic elements (MGEs) such as plasmids, viruses, and transposons, to a degree that exceeds organismal abundances by an order of magnitude in many different ecosystems.

"The basis of classic Neo-darwinist population genetics rests on the notion of gradual differences arising (i.e., via point mutation) within a population.... By contrast, mobile genetic elements (MGEs) such as plasmids, viruses, and transposons are capable of producing large genomic changes and can jump between (classically defined) populations by crossing species barriers. In particular, horizontal gene transfer—the transfer of genes between organisms that are not related by heredity—creates novel gene combinations by shuttling genetic material between organisms that share the same environment. Such gene transfers can have an enormous impact on the process of biological evolution.

"For the purposes of this article, we consider an event to be a HGT if it involves any transfer or introduction of any genetic material that does not stem from cellular replication. Evidence for HGT is wide-ranging. It occurs within and between all domains of life. The range of HGT encompasses the entire scale of organismal complexity, from viruses to multicellular eukaryotes. Time is apparently not a barrier: HGT events ranging from ancient to very recent have been reported. Indeed, there appears to be no absolute barrier to HGT, and we conclude that it is a generic feature of genome dynamics.

"HGT is nearly undetectable between the organisms for which it is expected to occur the most frequently.

"One of the most frequently-encountered structures in biology is modularity: a complex network (e.g. metabolic or gene regulatory) that can be decomposed into independent (i.e. weakly-interacting) internally-connected functional parts that can evolve separately with minimal disruption to the system as a whole.... One way for modularity to arise is through the horizontal transfer of a gene or collection of nearby genes that code for a particular part of a network..., thereby accelerating the dynamics. There is evidence that networks can indeed grow by acquiring genes in groups (known as operons, known to govern coupled reactions in the cell)....

"...Examples of recent beneficial HGT are abundant and reveal that HGT is still occurring in modern organisms."