An inventive mechanism: role of horizontal gene transfer (Evolution)

by David Turell , Friday, November 28, 2014, 15:41 (3646 days ago) @ David Turell

I've presented horizontal gene transfer in bacteria as a basic life evolution pattern obviously present at the single-cell level. Now more evidence is appearing for gene transfer working from single cell to eukaryotes:-http://newsbeat.washington.edu/story/animals-steal-defenses-bacteria-" “When we started digging into genome databases, we were surprised to find that toxin genes we thought were present only in bacteria were also in several animals,” explained co-author Matt Daugherty, a postdoctoral fellow in the Malik lab. “We immediately started wondering why they were there.”
 
"Their analyses revealed that these genes had jumped from bacteria into animals. These genes had become permanently incorporated into the genomes of these animals through a process known as horizontal gene transfer. While such transfer events are common between microbes, very few genes have been reported to jump from bacteria to more complex organisms."