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First known gene transfer from plant to insect identified
- wombatmobile 6y agoHorizontal gene transfer occurs routinely among bacteria through a process called conjugation. Bacteria literally inject their neighbour with a chunk of DNA. This is what the molecular apparatus looks like from the surface membrain of a bacterium. https://youtube.com/watch?v=ihlFqOK5cZM https://youtube.com/watch?v=ihlFqOK5cZM
- JPLeRouzic 6y agoYes, but here it is between eukaryotic cells, which are much more complex than prokaryotes, isn't? And it is between cell's type that are vastly different, one relying on photosynthesis, the other uses cell respiration. I am wrong?
- wombatmobile 6y agoYou are indeed correct to point out that the article is about two eukaryotes which are vastly different organisms, separated evolutionarily from bacteria by hundreds of millions of years, or billions of years, depending on how you measure it. Similarly, humans are quite different from whiteflies, although the difference is put into perspective when you consider that we have something like 40% commonality of genes, depending on how you map homologues. How the plant gene got into the whitefly is a deep mystery that happened long ago. If we go back even further in evolutionary history, insects, humans and other eukaryotes are descended from prokaryotes. The organelles of eukaryotic cells such as the mitochondria of animal cells and the chloroplasts of plant cells were once individual prokaryotes which merged into colonies and formed eukaryotic cells through endosymbiosis. Even today, eukaryotes live symbiotically with prokaryotes in a way that is impossible to disaggregate. You have as many prokaryotic cells living inside of your shirt and pants as you do eukaryotic cells, with trillions of gut bacteria responsible for keeping you alive by pre-processing the food you buy from the supermarket and restaurants into nutrients and amino acids that your actual body can utilise. Whiteflies also have parasitic and symbiotic commensal bacteria that are integral parts of their organism. Perhaps one of those gut bacteria, or a respiratory parasite transferred that plant gene millions of years ago in a freak occurrence. Or maybe it happens regularly and systemically. With gene sequencing only becoming widely available in the last decade, scientists are just beginning to isolate and identify examples of gene transfer like the one in this article.
- faitswulff 6y ago> Even today, eukaryotes live symbiotically with prokaryotes in a way that is impossible to disaggregate. Don’t forget mitochondria, the cellular organelles that are responsible for cell respiration: > Mitochondria and chloroplasts likely evolved from engulfed prokaryotes that once lived as independent organisms. At some point, a eukaryotic cell engulfed an aerobic prokaryote, which then formed an endosymbiotic relationship with the host eukaryote, gradually developing into a mitochondrion. https://www.nature.com/scitable/content/the-origin-of-mitochondria-and-chloroplasts-14747702/ https://www.nature.com/scitable/content/the-origin-of-mitoch...
- koeng 6y agoThey are more complex, but the cell type doesn't matter as much. In fact, there are bacteria that cause disease using HGT (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agrobacterium https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agrobacterium). Modification of those bacteria is how you get low-cost plant genetic engineering.
- mannerheim 6y agoThere are many cases of horizontal gene transfer involving eukaryotic cells, although usually the donor would be a prokaryotic cell or a virus. The bacterial residents of mealybug have lost the ability to make crucial proteins, and instead rely on the mealybug to produce them. It never had those genes in the first place, obtaining them instead through HGT. It's thus posited that eukaryotic organelles such as mitochondria and chloroplasts transferred genes to their hosts as well.[0] [0]: https://www.quantamagazine.org/cell-bacteria-mergers-offer-clues-to-how-organelles-evolved-20191003/ https://www.quantamagazine.org/cell-bacteria-mergers-offer-c...
- chovybizzass 6y ago...this is how the aliens injected their DNA in monkeys 20,000 years ago.
- otoburb 6y agoThat video was awesome. Reminded me of a cell-based version of the game Factorio.
- Teever 6y agoIt reminded me of this marvellous machine that was designed by Konrad Zuse: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odwgpKRnWM8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odwgpKRnWM8
- matheusmoreira 6y agoThey can also absorb DNA from their dead friends in order to obtain their powers. Microscopic Mega Men. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transformation_(genetics) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transformation_(genetics)
- tr3ndyBEAR 6y agoHGT is also common amongst soil fungi between bacteria and fungi. In fact, when certain mycorrhizal fungi are placed in high-stress environments, the rate of HGT increases. It's not really understood what mechanisms cause this, but it seems to be an adaptation to quickly adapt and evolved to a new environment by borrowing genes from other soil organisms
- ironmagma 6y agoAt last, some recognition that evolution is not just random trial and error.
- JPLeRouzic 6y agoI would read the article as if the transfer was a a random event, : But how the whitefly managed to swipe a plant gene is unclear. One possibility, says Turlings, is that a virus served as an intermediate, shuttling genetic material from a plant into the whitefly genome.
- ironmagma 6y agoRight, but there’s a difference between random events causing biological changes vs. random mutations having to happen during reproduction/birth and proved out in the form of natural selection.
- flobosg 6y agoNot sure what you meant with that. This gene transfer event is a mutation and as such is also being subject to natural selection.
- yes_man 6y agoFrom evolutionary point of view it is semantical why genome changed. Also I’ve never heard of any biology textbook or journal claiming mutations would only happen during reproduction or birth. Mutations happen all the time, that’s one reason we have diseases like cancer. Your reproductive cells can mutate any time throughout your life passing out differences to offspring. There is also genetic recombination bringing out traits that didn’t exist, or suppressing ones that do.
- andrewflnr 6y agoOnly mutations in sperm or egg can be passed on, so those are mainly the ones relevant to evolution.
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- rodarmor 6y agoReading the paper, I don't understand why the authors conclude that horizontal gene transfer is the most likely explanation, and not independent evolution.
- flobosg 6y agoThey assumed HGT because they couldn’t find any ortholog phenolic glucoside malonyltransferase genes in related whitefly species, eliminating convergent evolution as a possible explanation. In addition, the phylogenetic analysis showed that the BtPMaT1 gene clustered with other similar plant genes.
- folli 6y agoThis is based on gene sequence comparisons. The gene in question is closely related to its plant counterpart and phylogenetically distant to any other known insect genes. So the most parsimonious explanation is that the gene is horizontally transferred from plants to insects. The chance that it has evolved independently from another insect gene is very, very low.
- WalterBright 6y agoWe're on the cusp of a huge revolution in genetic engineering. I figure it's like what the computer industry was like in 1980. An awful lot of money is going to be made.
- amelius 6y ago> I figure it's like what the computer industry was like in 1980. But let's skip the part where hosts are infected by engineered viruses.
- faeyanpiraat 6y agoThe alternatives are... nanites?
- pmiller2 6y agoToo late: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxitec#Field_trials https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxitec#Field_trials
- sradman 6y agoThe paper is pure science. I’d argue that the Life Sciences are entering a Scientific Revolution 2.0. We are on the cusp of learning how many living systems work. The scope is broader than genetic engineering alone, IMO. This revolution is shaping up to be multidisciplinary; computation will be a critical aspect.
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- throwaway1107 6y agoThere is an interesting curated list of HGT examples at https://www.panspermia.org/whatsnew103.htm https://www.panspermia.org/whatsnew103.htm
- The_rationalist 6y agoI can't find it back but there was a blog post explaining that earth plants could have been red instead of just green. Do you imagine red forests?? And this is not science fiction at all, brown and red photosynthesis can be as efficient hence why it is very common underwater. However some contingent "choices" have been made at the origin of photosynthesis and no terrestrial plant has preserved the necessary gens and such gens cannot be developed back. However horizontal gene transfer might be a hope of seeing one day a red planet (though a human made OGMs is likely the best strategy)
- minikites 6y agoI remember the "Carniferns" from SimEarth and the idea of a plant/animal hybrid is very appealing. I can imagine a distant future where a durable engineered hybrid could be put to use for terraforming.
- 60654 6y agoNow I'm remembering dropping monoliths all over the place and ending up with hyper intelligent mollusks and carnivorous plants. That game was wild. :)
- marcodiego 6y agoMakes me think if all those insets that mimic plants are really just a matter of adaption and evolution or they got some plant genes.
- webmaven 6y ago> Makes me think if all those insets that mimic plants are really just a matter of adaption and evolution or they got some plant genes. If you mean insects that look like plants, then no. The genes that control and influence morphology are completely different (in theory a gene for something like a pigment could transfer, but I'm not aware of any examples). But if you mean insects that, for example, smell/taste like plants (either to plants being eaten, or to other insects), then maybe. But a common strategy that achieves this is for the insect to just store whatever compounds they need from plant material they eat, and that doesn't require gene transfer.
- aaron695 6y agoAn alternative to evolution. Just don't tell the 'scientists', you will undermine their scriptures now we've gone with a rote learning political science model. Is this where crispr came from?
- webmaven 6y ago> An alternative to evolution. Hardly. Horizontal Gene Transfer is an important mechanism, especially for bacteria, but only adds an interesting wrinkle to the neo-Darwinian modern synthesis (which has been incorporating additional aspects from various subfields of biology episodically since it was first articulated): https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modern_synthesis_(20th_century) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modern_synthesis_(20th_centu...