Arc Genetics

#consciousness #dna #genetics #humanity #virus

Shaun Lawton

About 8% of our DNA comes from viruses that infected our distant ancestors. Some of this DNA codes for proteins that affect our biology today.
The activity-regulated cytoskeletal (Arc) gene encodes a protein that is critical for memory consolidation.
There's some speculation that human consciousness may have been introduced into our genetic code by a virus.
"Long ago, a virus bound its genetic code to the genome of four-limbed animals. That snippet of code is still very much alive in humans' brains today, where it does the very viral task of packaging up genetic information and sending it from nerve cells to their neighbors in little capsules that look a whole lot like viruses themselves. And these little packages of information might be critical elements of how nerves communicate and reorganize over time — tasks thought to be necessary for higher-order thinking."
--from an article on Livescience.com
by Rafi Letzter published February 02, 2018