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Aphid's Color Comes From a Fungus Gene
Iron Nose writes with an account from Byte Size Biology of horizontal gene transfer from a fungus to an insect. The author suspects that we will see lots more of this as we sequence more genomes. "The pea aphid is known for having two different colors, green and red, but until now it was not clear how the aphids got their color. Aphids feed on sap, and sap does not contain carotenoids, a common pigment synthesized by plants, fungi, and microbes, but not by animals. Carotenoids in the diet gives many animals, from insects to flamingos, their exterior color after they ingest it, but aphids do not seem to eat carotenoid-containing food. Nancy Moran and Tyler Jarvik from the University of Arizona looked at the recently sequenced genome of the pea aphid. They were surprised to find genes for synthesizing carotenoids; this is the first time carotenoid synthesizing genes have been found in animals. When the researchers looked for the most similar genes to the aphid carotenoid synthesizing genes, they found that they came from fungi, which means they somehow jumped between fungi and aphids, in a process known as horizontal gene transfer."
Well fuck me sideways.
I wonder how soon I'll see this used in a movie.
My bet is: Man becomes werewolf after eating many wolves.
Find something your precious "evolution" can't explain and suddenly it's "horizontal evolution"? Can't you see the facts as clear as day? This is the Intelligent Designer porting features from one creature to another!
Deadhead Aphids always like their fungus for the visual effect.
Imagine of all those green people posing as magenta people.
The three laws of thermodynamics:(1) You can't win. (2) You can't break even. (3) You can't even quit.