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One Species' Genome Discovered Inside Another's
U of Rochester News ^ | 8/30/2007 | Jonathan Sherwood

Posted on 08/31/2007 7:49:29 AM PDT by TChris

Scientists at the University of Rochester and the J. Craig Venter Institute have discovered a copy of the genome of a bacterial parasite residing inside the genome of its host species.

The research, reported in today's Science, also shows that lateral gene transfer—the movement of genes between unrelated species—may happen much more frequently between bacteria and multicellular organisms than scientists previously believed, posing dramatic implications for evolution.

Such large-scale heritable gene transfers may allow species to acquire new genes and functions extremely quickly, says Jack Werren, a principal investigator of the study. If such genes provide new abilities in species that cause or transmit disease, they could provide new targets for fighting these diseases.

The results also have serious repercussions for genome-sequencing projects. Bacterial DNA is routinely discarded when scientists are assembling invertebrate genomes, yet these genes may very well be part of the organism's genome, and might even be responsible for functioning traits.

"This study establishes the widespread occurrence and high frequency of a process that we would have dismissed as science fiction until just a few years ago," says W. Ford Doolittle, Canada Research Chair in Comparative Microbial Genomics at Dalhousie University, who is not connected to the study. "This is stunning evidence for increased frequency of gene transfer."

"It didn't seem possible at first," says Werren, professor of biology at the University of Rochester and a world-leading authority on the parasite, called wolbachia. "This parasite has implanted itself inside the cells of 70 percent of the world's invertebrates, coevolving with them. And now, we've found at least one species where the parasite's entire or nearly entire genome has been absorbed and integrated into the host's. The host's genes actually hold the coding information for a completely separate species."

(Excerpt) Read more at rochester.edu ...


TOPICS: Miscellaneous; US: New York
KEYWORDS: genetics; science
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To: PissAndVinegar

If a human inserted her DNA inside a whale’s, we’d label that intelligent intervention.


21 posted on 08/31/2007 9:55:36 AM PDT by Southack (Media Bias means that Castro won't be punished for Cuban war crimes against Black Angolans in Africa)
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To: Southack

Are you attributing a mind to a strand of DNA? Define “deliberate.”


22 posted on 08/31/2007 10:00:51 AM PDT by js1138
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To: Scythian

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morgellons


23 posted on 08/31/2007 10:04:05 AM PDT by Southack (Media Bias means that Castro won't be punished for Cuban war crimes against Black Angolans in Africa)
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To: js1138

Non-accidental. Not happenstance.


24 posted on 08/31/2007 10:05:08 AM PDT by Southack (Media Bias means that Castro won't be punished for Cuban war crimes against Black Angolans in Africa)
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To: Southack

Are you attributing a mind to the strand of DNA? Or perhaps suggesting that an unseen entity is directing the process? Aliens, perhaps? Or demiurges?

What exactly are you suggesting?


25 posted on 08/31/2007 10:09:43 AM PDT by js1138
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To: js1138

An active life form has some level of sentience, yes?!


26 posted on 08/31/2007 10:11:08 AM PDT by Southack (Media Bias means that Castro won't be punished for Cuban war crimes against Black Angolans in Africa)
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To: Southack

So you are suggesting that a strand of DNA is conscious, and acts with conscious intention?


27 posted on 08/31/2007 10:12:52 AM PDT by js1138
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To: js1138

“What did the bacteria know, and when did it know it?!”


28 posted on 08/31/2007 10:31:22 AM PDT by Southack (Media Bias means that Castro won't be punished for Cuban war crimes against Black Angolans in Africa)
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To: TChris
Scientists attempts to shoehorn everything in biology into "evolution" is almost as laughable as their attempt to shoehorn all weather phenomena into "global warming".

The Spanish Inquisition had more rational doctrines accepted by its priest class.

:-(


29 posted on 08/31/2007 10:36:08 AM PDT by cgbg (There are two Americas--those who have the blackmail files and those who don't.)
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To: Southack

I highly doubt an amoeba is sentient but then again, I haven’t spoken to any lately.


30 posted on 08/31/2007 10:42:41 AM PDT by PissAndVinegar
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To: PissAndVinegar

“I highly doubt an amoeba is sentient but then again, I haven’t spoken to any lately.”

Well, had a conversation with a cabbage and a coral reef just yesterday.


31 posted on 08/31/2007 11:05:36 AM PDT by From many - one.
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To: Southack
It’s not Evolution in any way, shape, or form.

Will you publish a paper in Science magazine to explain your position?

32 posted on 08/31/2007 11:17:54 AM PDT by Ben Chad
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To: TChris

Sound kind of like mitochondria to me.


33 posted on 08/31/2007 11:30:41 AM PDT by Styria
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To: Getready
Does this mean that finding similarities in genes in different organisms doesn’t have to mean that the organisms are related in any evolutionary fashion?

Excellent question! This new find may unravel everything they think they know about gene sequencing.

34 posted on 08/31/2007 11:31:27 AM PDT by my_pointy_head_is_sharp (Deport 'em all.)
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To: From many - one.

and?

Are there still those cabbage/coral reef tensions that they’ve had for years? Their relations just haven’t been the same since the Reef Riot of ‘96...

(did we just turn this into the Friday silliness thread?)


35 posted on 08/31/2007 11:33:18 AM PDT by PissAndVinegar
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To: TChris

I have been wondering for years what would happen if you took a human gene, removed the parasitic bits, and grew the remainder.

Not sure I want to know, but I am dang curious...


36 posted on 08/31/2007 11:36:44 AM PDT by patton (Congress would lose money running a brothel.)
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To: PissAndVinegar

No, those were the reefer riots.

Smoked the cabbagers right out.

What Friday sillinews?


37 posted on 08/31/2007 11:42:27 AM PDT by From many - one.
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To: TChris

It sounds like a much more likely way for new species to evolve than the old Darwinst theory.


38 posted on 08/31/2007 7:36:23 PM PDT by expatpat
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To: TChris

It sounds like a much more likely way for new species to evolve than the old Darwinist theory.


39 posted on 08/31/2007 7:39:27 PM PDT by expatpat
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To: blam

Studying DNA makes for a great career ladder.

(that joke replicated via PCR)


40 posted on 08/31/2007 7:57:00 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (Profile updated Wednesday, August 29, 2007. https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
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