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Horizontal gene transfer in bacteria: Numbers surprise researchers

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From ScienceDaily:

Gene transfers are particularly common in the antibiotic-resistance genes of Streptococcus pneumoniae bacteria.

When mammals breed, the genome of the offspring is a combination of the parents’ genomes. Bacteria, by contrast, reproduce through cell division. In theory, this means that the genomes of the offspring are copies of the parent genome. However, the process is not quite as straightforward as this due to horizontal gene transfer through which bacteria can transfer fragments of their genome to each other. As a result of this phenomenon, the genome of an individual bacterium can be a combination of genes from several different donors. Some of the genome fragments may even originate from completely different species.

In a recent study combining machine learning and bioinformatics, a new computational method was developed for modelling gene transfers between different lineages of a bacterial population or even between entirely different bacterial species.

The study was able to show that gene transfer occurs both within species and between several different species. The large number of transfers identified during the study was a surprise to the researchers. Paper. (public access) – Rafal Mostowy, Nicholas J. Croucher, Cheryl P. Andam, Jukka Corander, William P. Hanage, Pekka Marttinen. Efficient inference of recent and ancestral recombination within bacterial populations. Molecular Biology and Evolution, 2017; DOI: 10.1093/molbev/msx066 More.

We remember when it was all put down to Darwinism (natural selection acting on random mutation) in lineal mother-daughter descent. One wonders how many would-be science majors are still learning that dogma in school.

See also: Horizontal gene transfer: Virus carries DNA of black widow spider toxin

Can parasitic plants use hosts’ genes against them?

Horizontal gene transfer: Researchers believe any two major groups of organisms can share genetic codes

and

Horizontal gene transfer: Sorry, Darwin, it’s not your evolution any more

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Comments
goodusername and Armand Jacks, it’s good to know they are not teaching strict Darwinism in school anymore in this matter One small step …
HGT research in bacteria was first published in 1959 and didn't start to be researched in detail until the sixties. It was in high school text books and being taught by the mid seventies. In the education system, that is lightning speed.
One wonders how many would-be science majors are still learning that dogma in school.
Nobody has to wonder. That "dogma" hasn't been taught in high schools for half a century. At least in Canada.Armand Jacks
March 9, 2017
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goodusername and Armand Jacks, it's good to know they are not teaching strict Darwinism in school anymore in this matter One small step ...News
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We remember when it was all put down to Darwinism (natural selection acting on random mutation) in lineal mother-daughter descent. One wonders how many would-be science majors are still learning that dogma in school.
Then your memory must go back a long time. I know from personal experience that they were teaching HGT in the mid 70s at Runnymede Collegiate. Given that we weren't using newly published text books, I suspect that it was being taught long before that.Armand Jacks
March 8, 2017
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One wonders how many would-be science majors are still learning that dogma in school.
HGT is pretty basic high school level science material (probably now even grade school level stuff). I remember being taught about HGT in 9th grade (a long, long time ago). I even remember having to describe the different kinds of HGT transfer (transformation vs transduction vs conjugation, etc).goodusername
March 8, 2017
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