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HOST GENE INTEGRATION. "Bacterial viruses, or bacteriophages (phages), integrate genetic material from their bacterial hosts, including toxin, photosynthesis and pigment biosynthesis genes that contribute to the fitness of their bacterial host. To date, however, there is no archetypal case of phage particles harbouring genomes with eukaryotic DNA." https://lnkd.in/dG3vir9 View in LinkedIn

FIERCE SELECTION. "Evolutionary advantages conferred by such program of self-destruction could include the constant selection for the survival of the fittest cell in the single-celled eukaryote colony, optimal adaptation of the cell numbers to the environment, and tight regulation of cell cycle and cell differentiation in response to environmental changes." http://www.nature.com/cdd/journal/v9/n4/full/4400950a.html View in LinkedIn

DOMAIN TRACED GENES. "Viruses are trifurcated into eukaryotic, archaeal and bacterial categories. This domain-specific ecology underscores why eukaryotic genes are typically co-opted by eukaryotic viruses and bacterial genes are commonly found in bacteriophages." https://lnkd.in/dYh3-r4 View in LinkedIn

HIJACKING HOST GENES. "As a result of this domain-specific ecology, viruses often integrate host genes via specific highways of lateral gene transfer. Eukaryotic viruses tend to hijack genes directly from their eukaryotic hosts to evade, manipulate and counter-strike antiviral immune responses, with the exception of some giant viruses that appear to acquire genes from all domains of life." https://lnkd.in/dG3vir9 View in LinkedIn

DOMAIN-SPECIFICITY. "While any cellular domain can be infected by a virus, no extant virus is known to traverse more than one domain. This domain-specific ecology of viruses underpins the current taxonomic paradigm of trifurcating viruses into eukaryotic, archaeal and bacterial categories, along with recent reappraisals of whether viruses constitute a fourth domain of life." https://lnkd.in/dG3vir9 View in LinkedIn

HIGH LATERAL TRANSFER. "The discovery of an extraordinarily high level of mobile elements in the genome of Wolbachia, a widespread arthropod and nematode endosymbiont, suggests that this bacterium could be an excellent model for assessing the evolution and function of mobile DNA in specialized bacteria." https://lnkd.in/dYh3-r4 View in LinkedIn

WOLBACHIA INSECT PANDEMIC. "In Asobara tabida insects and cell lines from Drosophila simulans flies and Aedes mosquitoes, Wolbachia is involved in iron metabolism of the host. These bacteria can also be transmitted horizontally across species, which has led to a pandemic-level distribution in invertebrates: current estimates place Wolbachia in 66% of all arthropod species." https://lnkd.in/dYh3-r4 View in LinkedIn

WALBACHIA HOST MANIPULATION. "In addition to modifying reproduction, Wolbachia spp. have recently been shown to confer resistance against RNA viruses, influence locomotion in response to food cues and increase egg laying of females reared on low- or high-iron diets in Drosophila." https://lnkd.in/dYh3-r4 View in LinkedIn

WOLBACHIA BIOLOGY. "During their 100-million-year association with their hosts, the maternally-transmitted bacteria have evolved as “reproductive parasites” that cause cytoplasmic incompatibility, feminization, parthenogenesis, and male killing in arthropods, while in nematodes and some arthropods, they are mutualistic and can be required for host oogenesis or larval development." https://lnkd.in/dYh3-r4 View in LinkedIn

WOLBACHIA BACTERIA. "Wolbachia species are members of the obligate intracellular Rickettsiales and forge parasitic relationships with arthropods and mutualistic relationships primarily with nematodes." https://lnkd.in/dYh3-r4 View in LinkedIn