Bacterial Enzyme Keeps Rotifers’ Transposable Elements in Check
Jumping genes in bdelloid rotifers are tamped down by DNA methylation performed by an enzyme pilfered from bacteria roughly 60 million years ago, a study finds.
ABOVE: Courtesy of Michael Shribak, Irina Yushenova
Bacterial Enzyme Keeps Rotifers’ Transposable Elements in Check
Bacterial Enzyme Keeps Rotifers’ Transposable Elements in Check
Jumping genes in bdelloid rotifers are tamped down by DNA methylation performed by an enzyme pilfered from bacteria roughly 60 million years ago, a study finds.
Jumping genes in bdelloid rotifers are tamped down by DNA methylation performed by an enzyme pilfered from bacteria roughly 60 million years ago, a study finds.
ABOVE: Courtesy of Michael Shribak, Irina Yushenova
Studies The Scientist covered this year illustrate the expanding importance of genetic and genomic research in all aspects of life science, from ecology to medicine.
A newly identified gene family named “parasitoid killing factor” is found in both insect-infecting viruses and their hosts, although researchers can’t yet tell where they originated.
A study of human populations around the world detects differing rates of horizontal gene transfer in the microbiome depending on what kind of society those people live in.
Whiteflies overcome a toxin in plants they eat through the use of the plant’s own genetic protection, likely ferried from plant to insect millions of years ago by a virus.
Rather than introducing small chunks of DNA as other viruses do, some giant viruses can contribute more than 1 million base pairs to a host’s genome, broadening the ways in which viruses may shape eukaryote evolution.
A re-analysis of sequencing data from a 2016 study of these tiny metazoans reveals possible contamination, rather than an exchange of DNA among species.
In the DNA of the WO phage, which infects arthropod-inhabiting Wolbachia, researchers find sequences related to a black widow spider’s toxin and other animal genes.
Kelly Robinson and Julie Dunning Hotopp | Oct 1, 2016
Bacteria inhabit most tissues in the human body, and genes from some of these microbes have made their way to the human genome. Could this genetic transfer contribute to diseases such as cancer?
Kelly Robinson and Julie Dunning Hotopp | Sep 30, 2016
DNA transfer is a regular event among bacteria, and research over the past decade has shown that microbes can also shuttle their genetic material to multicellular hosts.