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Wasps Have Injected New Genes Into Butterflies

sciencehabit writes: If you're a caterpillar, you do not want to meet a parasitic wasp. The winged insect will inject you full of eggs, which will grow inside your body, develop into larvae, and hatch from your corpse. But a new study reveals that wasps have given caterpillars something beneficial during these attacks as well: pieces of viral DNA that become part of the caterpillar genome, protecting them against an entirely different lethal virus. In essence, the wasps have turned caterpillars into genetically modified organisms.

3 of 103 comments (clear)

  1. Re:This is pretty common in other organisms by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    Errr..what? And here I was thinking that most vaccines work by injecting people with a weakened variety of the virus and therefore inducing the body to create anti bodies? Which is different from injecting genetic code into our DNA.

    Am I wrong?

  2. Re:This happens a lot by Psychophrenes · · Score: 5, Informative

    For the curious ones, this is called Horizontal Gene Transfer : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

  3. Re:Oh no no no! by ChromeAeonium · · Score: 3, Informative

    Except that McDonald's market domination (in the sector "cooked foods") is negligible compared to Monsanto's market domination (in the sector "agrobusiness").

    Yes, there's only Pioneer, Syngenta, BASF, Dow, Bayer CropScience, ect. Ever been to any of their operations? I have. Those are far from negligible alternative seed sources.

    Except that McDonalds isn't (successfully) lobbying governments around the world to rule out home cooking.

    And what, exactly, are you implying Monsanto is lobbying governments to forbid? The only ones I see doing that are the anti-GMO groups who would ban even publicly funded GE research.

    Except that McDonalds hasn't bought out whole university departments and has a thumb on publication of their results.

    So I've been told. Well, I happen to be in one of those often accused of being bought out university departments, and damnedest thing, I keep missing those lucrative selling out seminars. Accusations of conspiracy are the last resort of the wrong. If I was willing to sell myself out for Monsanto or the like I'd just up and work for them and take a nice pay raise while I'm at it. Now, if you have proof of this cabal (which must clearly be clearly global, given the genetic engineering research the world over), and I really am being left out of all that good old Monsanto corruption money without so much as a free Monsanto T-shirt to show for it, I'm willing to hear it, but it better be good, because I think you just made that up.