One species’ genome discovered inside another’s
One species’ genome discovered inside
another’s
Great fleas have little fleas upon their backs to bite ‘em
And little fleas have lesser fleas, and so ad infinitum.
- Augustus de Morgan
I know this isn’t a “Wow” for everyone; but, I’m completely bedazzled. The implications are incredible.
Scientists at the University of Rochester and the J. Craig Venter Institute have discovered a copy of the genome of a bacterial parasite residing inside the genome of its host species.
The research also shows that lateral gene transfer—the movement of genes between unrelated species—may happen much more frequently between bacteria and multicellular organisms than scientists previously believed, posing dramatic implications for evolution, pest, and disease control.
The results also have serious repercussions for genome-sequencing projects. Bacterial DNA is routinely discarded when scientists are assembling invertebrate genomes, yet these genes may very well be part of the organism’s genome, and might even be responsible for functioning traits.
“It didn’t seem possible at first,” says John Werren, a world-leading authority on the parasite, called Wolbachia. “This parasite has implanted itself inside the cells of 70 percent of the world’s invertebrates, coevolving with them. And now, we’ve found at least one species where the parasite’s entire or nearly entire genome has been absorbed and integrated into the host’s. The host’s genes actually hold the coding information for a completely separate species.”
Read the whole article. Kudos to the first to turn it into a movie script.
Posted: Thu - August 30, 2007 at 01:28 PM