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PLASMID EVOLUTION. "It has recently become clear that through small genetic changes such as single point mutations, both types of plasmid could drastically improve their ability to stably replicate in strains wherein they used to be lost easily." https://lnkd.in/e7i6Qm3 View in LinkedIn

FRAGMENT FROM NATURE this weekend looks at the hierarchical levels of genetic control. Genes regulate the correct functions of cells through proteins. Genes are hierarchical, with clusters of genes being supervised by a higher-level master gene for that cluster; and further up the hierarchy, that master gene is regulated by another master gene, and the dance goes on. So far it is an emerging picture, far from complete. View in LinkedIn

HIGHLY PLASTIC NETWORKS. "HGT networks are fluid and highly evolvable, as is evidenced by the large intraspecific variability often observed in terms of the capacity of strains to donate or receive DNA by means of different mechanisms, and in the establishment of coevolutionary arms races among, particularly, bacteria and phage." (HGT, Horizontal Gene Transfer). https://lnkd.in/eXE-r93 View in LinkedIn

GENETIC LOOPHOLES. "The flow of genes across taxa through HGT is enabled by the existence of complex networks of loopholes across transfer barriers, often provided by a small fraction of the individuals in an otherwise inaccessible population." https://lnkd.in/eXE-r93 View in LinkedIn

UBIQUITOUS HORIZONTAL GENE TRANSFERS. "HGT is a widespread phenomenon for many organisms. Cases have been documented involving all possible pair-wise combinations and directions of transfer in the three domains of life plus viruses." https://lnkd.in/eXE-r93 View in LinkedIn

FUNCTIONAL MOBILE GENES. "Many animal genomes include bacterial and fungal genes acquired by horizontal gene transfer during evolution. Scanning the genomes of fruit flies, nematodes, primates, and humans, among other animals, researchers found evidence to suggest that some of these horizontally acquired genes may even be functional." https://lnkd.in/eaMwmW6 View in LinkedIn

HORIZONTAL GENE HIGHWAY. "Horizontal gene transfer is an important force modulating evolution in the prokaryotic world and the evolution of particular eukaryotes. Although gene exchange is easier in closely related organisms, horizontal gene transfer occurred between both domains in the evolution of Archaea and Bacteria." https://lnkd.in/eVQ_4UY View in LinkedIn

RADICAL CONSEQUENCES. "What scientists have seen is just a little tip of an immense iceberg,’ says Antonio Teixeira, a biologist at the University of Brasilia. W Ford Doolittle, a biochemist at Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia, agrees: horizontal gene transfer, he wrote recently ‘is far more pervasive and more radical in its consequences than we could have guessed just a decade ago’." https://aeon.co/essays/genes-that-jump-species-does-this-shake-the-tree-of-life View in LinkedIn

HORIZONTAL AND VERTICAL. "According to textbook theories of evolution, the major route of genes moving between organisms is parent to child – whether through sex or asexual cloning – not this sneaky business of escorting genes between unrelated organisms. We must now acknowledge that, even among the most complex organisms, vertical is not the only direction in which genes travel." https://aeon.co/essays/genes-that-jump-species-does-this-shake-the-tree-of-life View in LinkedIn

NO IMMUTABLE SPECIES. "As far as DNA is concerned, however, the supposed walls between species are not nearly so impermeable. Up in the branches of the great tree of life, we are no longer immersed in the ancient communal pool that watered its tangled roots. Yet we cannot escape the winds of promiscuity. Even today – as was true from the start – ‘our’ genes are not ours alone." https://aeon.co/essays/genes-that-jump-species-does-this-shake-the-tree-of-life View in LinkedIn