Category: horizontal gene transfer

Hundreds of types of bacteria in 4 million-year-old cave can fight off antibiotics

“Many microbiologists therefore suspect that nonpathogenic bacteria are acting as a vast pool of ancient resistance genes waiting to be transferred to pathogenic bacteria.” more

Darwinists try to come to terms with horizontal gene transfer

Where bacteria mutate simply by sharing genes, not by Darwinian struggle, survival of the fittest, etc. more

Horizontal gene transfer: Gene from bacteria lets beetle feed only on coffee beans

Non-Darwinian evolution: “Cases of ecologically significant HGT in eukaryotes are starting to pile up, …” more

So evolution can happen, only it’s not Darwinism?

“There is no host-parasite relationship between these plants, which is usually when we see this kind of gene movement.” more

Horizontal gene transfer: Whole chloroplasts move between species; how they do it unclear as yet – researchers

Another surprising discovery in non-Darwinian evolution. more

Horizontal gene transfer? Sea slug incorporates algae’s chlorophyll factories

Just how the slugs make the genetics work remains unclear. more

Horizontal gene transfer: Massive network of recent gene exchange connects bacteria from around the world?

“HGT is an ancient method for bacteria from different lineages to acquire and share useful genetic information they didn’t inherit from their parents.” more

Ancient bacteria resisted antibiotics they’d never met – jumping genes implicated

In “Antibiotic resistance found in ancient bacteria” (CBC News, Aug 31, 2011), Emily Chung reports, The same genes that make disease-causing bacteria resistant to today’s antibiotics have been found in soil bacteria that have remained frozen since woolly mammoths roamed the Earth. “We’ve shown for the first time that drug resistance is a really old… more