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Convergent evolution is totally a thing. What if at some point in time, there was a virus running around and copy pasting some dna around?
by phito 8y ago
Convergent evolution is totally a thing. What if at some point in time, there was a virus running around and copy pasting some dna around?
- mannykannot 8y agoI think it is generally true to say that individual genes don't work in a vacuum, and neither do the biological mechanisms they encode for, so the transferred DNA would have to contain a suite of co-dependent genes. Admittedly, there is a counter-example in the transfer of genes conferring resistance to a particular pathogen. I think it is also true to say that convergent evolution often produces results that differ genetically, even though the resulting phenotypes serve the same purpose.
- fifnir 8y agoCheck out these guys: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transposable_element https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transposable_element
- stevenwoo 8y agoLike this retrotransposon? https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2018/04/the-shellfish-gene/558131/ https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2018/04/the-shel...