Category: Uncategorized

GENE ECOSYSTEMS. "We need to start thinking about genomes as ecological units rather than monolithic units." https://aeon.co/essays/genes-that-jump-species-does-this-shake-the-tree-of-life View in LinkedIn

SWAP HOT-SPOTS. "Potential hot spots in the environment for recombination and HGT include biofilms, the rhizosphere, decomposing material, guts of soil animals and the interior of bacterivorous protozoa." https://lnkd.in/eXE-r93 View in LinkedIn

COMMON GENE SHUFFLING. "Bdelloid rotifers – tiny translucent animals that look something like sea slugs – have constructed a whopping eight per cent of their genome using genes from bacteria, fungi and plants. Fish living in icy seawater have traded genes coding for antifreeze proteins. Gargantuan-blossomed rafflesia have exchanged genes with the plants they parasitise." https://aeon.co/essays/genes-that-jump-species-does-this-shake-the-tree-of-life View in LinkedIn

GUT HGT. "In Japan, some people’s gut bacteria have stolen seaweed-digesting genes from ocean bacteria lingering on raw seaweed salads." This is an important observation. https://aeon.co/essays/genes-that-jump-species-does-this-shake-the-tree-of-life View in LinkedIn

BROAD FOOTPRINT. "The transposon BovB – first found in cows (hence the bovine epithet) – is also present in anoles, opossums, platypuses, wallabies, horses, sea urchins, silkworms and zebrafish, to name a few." https://aeon.co/essays/genes-that-jump-species-does-this-shake-the-tree-of-life View in LinkedIn

BUSY GENE. "On its epic journey through the tree of life, BovB has jumped between species at least nine times, and seems to have moved from reptiles to mammals." https://aeon.co/essays/genes-that-jump-species-does-this-shake-the-tree-of-life View in LinkedIn

WE ARE GENETIC MOSAICS. "Around half of the human genome is made up of bits of DNA that have copied themselves and jumped around, creating vast tracts of repetitive sequences. The same is true for the cow genome, where one particular piece of DNA, known as BovB, has run amok. It’s there in its thousands. Around a quarter of a cow’s DNA is made of BovB sequences or their descendants." This cow DNA came from snakes." https://lnkd.in/ekpvtvZ View in LinkedIn

JUMPING GENES. "Researchers at The University of Texas at Arlington have found the first solid evidence of horizontal DNA transfer, the movement of genetic material among non-mating species, between parasitic invertebrates and some of their vertebrate hosts." https://lnkd.in/eWWzdkB View in LinkedIn

CELL FRAGMENT SURPRISE. "DNA fragmentation is a biochemical hallmark of apoptosis. It was shown that horizontal DNA transfer between mammalian cells can occur through the uptake of apoptotic bodies, where genes from the apoptotic cells were transferred to neighbouring cells phagocytosing the apoptotic bodies." https://lnkd.in/evv6az7 View in LinkedIn

NO SPECIES BARRIER. "Because of their prevalence, phages are likely to play an important role in gene transfer in the environment. Although it used to be thought that phages only rarely crossed species boundaries, broad-host-range (BHR) generalized transducing phages that can transfer genes between species and genera have recently been discovered at high frequency in different natural environments." https://lnkd.in/eXE-r93 View in LinkedIn