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Off Topic Forums => Off Topic Forum => Topic started by: Okealyshire on June 16, 2008, 07:26:28 pm

Title: Who needs sex when you can steal genes from whatever you want?
Post by: Okealyshire on June 16, 2008, 07:26:28 pm

http://www.sciencemusings.com/blog/2008/06/swimming-with-tide.html (http://www.sciencemusings.com/blog/2008/06/swimming-with-tide.html)

"Now, in the May 30 issue of Science, researchers at Harvard University and the Marine Biology Lab at Woods Hole report that bdelloid rotifers have been busy scavenging genes from whatever sources they can find -- including bacteria, fungi and plants. It's called horizontal gene transfer (HGT), and may explain why bdelloid rotifers have diversified into more than 360 species over 40 million years. Many of the purloined genes appear to have retained their functionality. Variation by theft! The advantages of sex without the bother of finding and wooing a mate."

[Good day from Stockholm. Beautiful weather today, and lots of eye candy wandering the streets.]