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One Species' Genome Discovered Inside Another's
slyyy writes "The Universtiy of Rochester has discovered the complete genome of a bacterial parasite inside the genome of the host species. This opens the possibility of exchanging DNA between unrelated species and changing our understanding of the evolutionary process. From the article: 'Before this study, geneticists knew of examples where genes from a parasite had crossed into the host, but such an event was considered a rare anomaly except in very simple organisms. Bacterial DNA is very conspicuous in its structure, so if scientists sequencing a nematode genome, for example, come across bacterial DNA, they would likely discard it, reasonably assuming that it was merely contamination--perhaps a bit of bacteria in the gut of the animal, or on its skin. But those genes may not be contamination. They may very well be in the host's own genome. This is exactly what happened with the original sequencing of the genome of the anannassae fruitfly--the huge Wolbachia insert was discarded from the final assembly, despite the fact that it is part of the fly's genome.'"
as long as i don't get the genes from my neighbour
I thought I was into some kinky shit, but I never tried to stick my genome into someone.
-Peter
Rodney is that you?
"There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order." -Ed H
Clearly a copy/paste error...
it just means the FSM reused his code. Doesn't everyone?
If my call is important, why am I talking to a recording?
Maybe I'm a little slow, but I thought that this story indicated that the Bacteria had done precisely that.
...include the complete genome for pizza.
Cloned foods give the statement "We had that last week!" a whole new meaning.
Enrico
"Hey, you got fruitfly in my wolbachia"
"You got wolbachia in my fruitfly!"