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FUNCTIONAL VIRAL GENES. "Our study provided comprehensive and convincing evidence that the genes of small circular ssDNA viruses have been transferred into a broad range of eukaryotic genomes, and some of the transferred genes were also conserved and functional in host genomes. This discovery extends the host range of circular ssDNA viruses and offers insight into the origin and evolution of relevant viruses." http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2148/11/276/ View in LinkedIn

"HORIZONTAL GENE TRANSFER has happened between all kinds of living things throughout the history of life on the planet – not just between species, but also between different kingdoms of life. Bacterial genes end up in plants; fungal genes wind up in animals; snake and frog genes find their way into cows and bats. It seems that the genome of just about every modern species is something of a mosaic constructed with genes borrowed from many different forms of life." https://aeon.co/essays/genes-that-jump-species-does-this-shake-the-tree-of-life View in LinkedIn

ANOTHER METHOD. "In addition to vertical transmission, organisms can also acquire genes from other distantly related species or from their extra-chromosomal elements (plasmids and viruses) via horizontal gene transfer (HGT). It has been suggested that phages represent substantial forces in prokaryotic evolution." https://lnkd.in/ehxdJfF View in LinkedIn

VERY RECENT CHANGE. "When the human genome was first published, the suggestion that it contained bacterial genes was controversial." (2001). A reminder that scientific hypotheses can evolve rapidly. New mindset today. https://lnkd.in/eaMwmW6 View in LinkedIn

GENE TRANSFER AGENTS. "We documented GTA-mediated gene transfer frequencies a thousand to a hundred million times higher than prior estimates of HGT in the oceans, with as high as 47% of the culturable natural microbial community confirmed as gene recipients. These findings suggest a plausible mechanism by which marine bacteria acquire novel traits, thus ensuring resilience in the face of environmental change." https://lnkd.in/ebVH843 View in LinkedIn

DRIVING FORCE. "We present data supporting the hypothesis that viral genes and viral activity generate genetic variability of prokaryotes and are a driving force for ecological functioning and evolutionary change." http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1046/j.1462-2920.2003.00539.x/full View in LinkedIn

WIDESPREAD HGT. "We demonstrate that the widespread capability of marine bacteria to participate in horizontal gene transfer (HGT) in coastal and oceanic environments may be the result of gene transfer agents (GTAs), viral-like particles produced by α-Proteobacteria." https://lnkd.in/ebVH843 View in LinkedIn

SERIAL GENE ACQUISITION. "The host-to-virus direction suggests that the serial acquisition of genes involved in the same metabolic pathway might have been a strategy for the ancestor of EhVs to stay ahead of their closest relatives in the great evolutionary race for survival." http://jvi.asm.org/content/84/22/11876.short View in LinkedIn

ENTIRE PATHWAY TRANSFERAL."Horizontal gene transfer of an entire metabolic pathway between a eukaryotic alga and its DNA virus. The virus-to-host direction suggests the existence of ancient viruses that controlled the complex metabolic pathway in order to infect primitive eukaryotic cells." http://jvi.asm.org/content/84/22/11876.short View in LinkedIn

VIRUSES AND EUKARYOTES. "Our findings imply that horizontal transfer of double-stranded RNA viral genes is widespread among eukaryotes and may give rise to functionally important new genes, thus entailing that RNA viruses may play significant roles in the evolution of eukaryotes." https://lnkd.in/eCybf-m View in LinkedIn