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 ...
Pretty cool. Why would an organism need a copy of another in its DNA unless it was to synthesize it at some point? Kind of a weird way to accomplish reproduction.
Wait until the RIAA hears about this - no species on Earth will be safe from their lawyers and lawsuits...
ROFL!
I believe it. I’ve known people that are pond scum.
bttt
Where do you suppose viruses and other cold germs go when they take up residence in your body? That’s right, they get jobs and don’t bother with Green Cards. Most of the otherwise meaningless DNA in our cells is these illegals.
I don’t think we fully understand this DNA thing yet.
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?
Does wolbachia only parasitize bacteria? Do more complex
organisms like the fungi have the wolbachia genome?
How does the host bacteria coexist? How and why did the wolbachia
develop this technique in the first place? If genes are
“selfish” why does the Wolbachia coexist?
Should people emulate the host, and allow coexistence, or
should people emulate Wolbachia and parasitize the host,
or should what we emulate and accept what “naturally” occurs?
Complex life is, no?
I have a hypothesis that “jumping genes” carried by viruses or bacteria drive a lot of evolution. For example, when ice ages came along, a lot of fauna (mammoths, mastodons, bison, rhinos, etc.) suddenly developed fuzzy undercoats with long guardhair outcoats. Could the gene that carries that particular survival trait have jumped multiple species? I think that is more likely than having such a survival trait simultaneously appear by mutation in multiple species. “Jumping genes” could also explain how genetic and species variation could proceed at a much faster pace than with random mutation. Whole segments of DNA and RNA could suddenly appear in a different species. Sort of like inserting an entire subroutine of code into an existing computer program instead of a random 0 or 1.
Jumpin’ Genomes!
A functioning DNA process that deliberately inserts itself into a different species is evidence of intelligent intervention.
It’s not Evolution in any way, shape, or form.
You underestimate modern evolutionists, FRiend. If a scientist can but imagine how evolution might be able to explain it, then they're still good to go.
Evidence is so passé.
Only a selective set of viruses attach to or mutate DNA.
It’s neither, it’s simple self preservation.
Parasites, viruses and various symbiotic organisms have been doing it for millennium.
This is exactly what is happening to Morgellons patients, however, I cannot say more on the subject.
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