4 ms·

I didn't see anything in the article that referenced this, but why is the assumption being made that the virus acquired the genes from black widows and not the

• inimino 10y ago
  For one thing, it's a lot easier and more common for the transfer to go in that direction. If you think about the life cycles and what would have to happen in each case, one is just a lot more likely than the other.
• sohkamyung 10y ago
  This article by Ed Yong in The Atlantic contains the following paragraph about this [1]: It’s possible that the spiders got the latrotoxin gene from the virus, or that the two evolved their copies independently. But by comparing the various versions of latrotoxin, the Bordensteins think that it’s most likely that the virus got the gene from spiders. It certainly had the right opportunity, since Wolbachia, its host microbe, does indeed infect black widows. The phage could have picked up spider DNA directly from the creature’s own cells. Or Wolbachia could have picked up spider DNA and then transferred it to the phage. Or other as-yet-unidentified viruses and bacteria could have acted as intermediaries. - [1] http://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2016/10/the-virus-with-spider-dna/503585/ http://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2016/10/the-virus...
• SturgeonsLaw 10y ago
  Unless the virus injected the gene into the black widows' gametes, the introduced gene would leave the spider population when that individual spider died. It's possible, but lowers the odds of an already unlikely process. Meanwhile, viruses slurp up DNA from their hosts all the time.
  • phyzome 10y ago
    Well, many Wolbachia infect the gonads of their hosts...