ABOVE: A whitefly feeds on a leaf
JIXING XIA AND ZHAOJIANG GUO
In the first known example of horizontal gene transfer between a plant and an animal, a common pest known as the whitefly (Bemisia tabaci) acquired a gene from the one of the various plants it feeds on, researchers reported today (March 25) in Cell. The gene, BtPMaT1, protects the insects from phenolic glycosides, toxins that many plants produce to defend themselves against such pests, thus allowing the whiteflies to feast.
“This study is seriously cool,” says Charles Davis, an evolutionary biologist at Harvard University who was not involved in the study. It “demonstrates yet another nice example of how horizontal gene transfer among eukaryotes confers evolutionary novelty.”
Horizontal gene transfer is the nonsexual swapping of genes between species. It’s been documented previously between single-celled organisms and even between some eukaryotes such as fungi and beetles. There are a number ...
