[allmendream]

Yes there is. Bacteria are not only adept at gaining foreign DNA, they are ‘experts’ at getting rid of any DNA that isn’t ‘worth its salt’.

If any at all present in your body didn’t get the DNA your immune system (by some unknown mechanism) was introducing, then those that didn’t get the DNA would dominate subsequent generations. Those that gained it would experience selective pressure to rid themselves of it, and any mutation that rendered it inoperable would be favored.

It would be, first of all an amazing unknown mechanism, and secondly - an attempt to beat a bacteria at its own game.

You don’t win that way, it is an outlandish strategy presupposing unknown mechanisms that, even if true, wouldn’t be effective.

Reality is, by most accounts, weird enough. Our immune system introducing DNA into bacteria is weird, but not weird enough - because it wouldn’t work.

[1010RD]

Excellent and astute series of replies. Thanks for sharing.

[adorno]

Sounds like you've done the research already to come up with your conclusions.

Reality is, by most accounts, weird enough. Our immune system introducing DNA into bacteria is weird, but not weird enough - because it wouldn’t work.

So, according to your research or understanding, DNA introduced by a host into an invader is doomed to fail in changing the characteristics of the invader because the invader is "too smart" or has it's own defensive mechanism. But, genetic material that "invades" an intruder might be "intended" as a defense mechanism by the host as an attempt to render the invader "harmless" by changing the dangerous characteristics of that invader. According to you, DNA exchange is a one way street, where the Gonorrhea bacteria are the ones "taking" from the host, and it's not the host attempting to defend itself by "introducing" it's own DNA into the invader.

The way I see it, most of how a body's defense mechanism works is still to be discovered, and we don't know the entire picture yet.