2 ms·
As someone with no business even commenting on this topic, I'll ask anyway: is it possible that a virus could do this? My (again, naive) understanding of CRIS
by shireboy 5y ago
As someone with no business even commenting on this topic, I'll ask anyway: is it possible that a virus could do this? My (again, naive) understanding of CRISPR is that it uses a virus to inject DNA fragments into an organism's cells in a way that they become usable. Is there any chance that a naturally occurring virus injected this sequence into the fish in such a way that they both incorporate it into their offspring, at which point natural selection takes over?
- failwhaleshark 5y agoIn which direction? Host-to-virus and virus-to-host (germline) HGT. Virus-to-virus HGT: happens all of the time. Retrovirus-to-host: endogenous retroviruses are ~8% of the human genome. Host-to-virus: I don't know. The other issue would be the size of the payload. It seems like a big stretch, but so is life. I doubt any of this is realistically-possible except in externally-fertilized species where either something weird happened between gametes of different species or a retrovirus infected the gametes. Hybridization may also be an explanation.
- shireboy 5y agoI guess host-to-virus and virus-to-host is what I meant with the question. Virus evolves in the herring incorporating the AFP gene. Then infects the smelt or gametes and injects the AFP gene. A small number of smelt incorporate the gene and then nature selects for their offspring.