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TRANSPOSABLE ELEMENTS (TEs). "Despite an enormous diversity of eukaryotic TEs, they belong to only two types, called retrotransposons and DNA transposons. Whereas a retrotransposon is transposed (retroposed) via reverse transcription of its mRNAs, a DNA transposon is transposed via transfer of its genomic copy from one site to another." https://lnkd.in/evfenaM View in LinkedIn

INFLAMMATION INITIATION. "Our data show that pathogen-driven inflammatory responses in the gut can generate transient enterobacterial blooms in which conjugative transfer occurs at unprecedented rates. These blooms may favor reassortment of plasmid-encoded genes between pathogens and commensals fostering the spread of fitness-, virulence-, and antibiotic-resistance determinants." https://lnkd.in/ejBu7My View in LinkedIn

PARASITIC GENETIC ELEMENTS. "Genomes of most eukaryotes are populated by DNA copies of parasitic elements known as transposable elements (TEs) capable of reproducing themselves in the host genome in a non-Mendelian fashion" by horizontal gene transfer. https://lnkd.in/evfenaM View in LinkedIn

HOT SPOT. "Dense microbial communities, such as the human gut microbiota are now considered a hot spot of microbial gene transfer. This is all the more interesting since it was recently discovered that the rate of HGT is apparently eight to nine orders of magnitude faster than previously thought." (HGT = horizontal gene transfer). https://lnkd.in/e5FE9cJ View in LinkedIn

GIANT VIRUSES. "Much like bacteria, the giant viruses (sometimes called giruses) possess their own parasites and their own mobilomes, i.e. communities of associated mobile genetic elements." http://virologyj.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1743-422X-10-158 View in LinkedIn

TROJAN HORSES. "Viruses have insinuated themselves into the genome of our ancestors for hundreds of millions of years. They typically have gotten there by infecting eggs or sperm, inserting their own DNA into ours. There are 100,000 known fragments of viruses in the human genome, making up over 8% of our DNA." https://lnkd.in/eFhFQjd View in LinkedIn

COMPLEX NETWORK. "Virophages, polintons, and transpovirons: a complex evolutionary network of diverse selfish genetic elements with different reproduction strategies. Recent advances of genomics and metagenomics reveal remarkable diversity of viruses and other selfish genetic elements." https://lnkd.in/eEUzxrC View in LinkedIn

MEMORY TRANSFER. Train a little Platyhelminthes to learn a trick. Grind it up and feed it to naive worms. And you get an uptick in the rate at which the worms learn the trick. Roasted professor anyone? Not an untarnished story. https://lnkd.in/esKEPF7 View in LinkedIn

POLINTONS "were only proposed in 2005, but since then we understand them a bit better. These mobile genetic elements further expand the growing family of jumping genes." https://lnkd.in/eEM2HAP View in LinkedIn

WE ARE WHAT WE EAT? There is growing evidence that the human gut microbiota is very actively importing genes from our food. Previously an unthinkable proposition, this hypothesis is gathering support. And what of the exchange between our microbiota and our own cells? View in LinkedIn