Gonorrhea Steals DNA From Humans

[n2doc]

By Duncan Geere, Wired UK

Researchers have discovered the first case of a direct transfer of a human DNA fragment to a bacterial genome. The guilty party? Gonorrhea.

Scientists have known that genes could transfer between different bacteria, and even between bacteria and yeast cells, but biologists at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine discovered that Neisseria gonorrhoeae, the bacteria responsible for gonorrhea, had stolen a sequence of DNA bases (adenine, cytosine, guanine and thymine) from an L1 DNA element found in humans.

Hank Seifert, a senior author of the paper describing the research, due to be published in mBio, said in a press release: “This has evolutionary significance because it shows you can take broad evolutionary steps when you’re able to acquire these pieces of DNA. The bacterium is getting a genetic sequence from the very host it’s infecting. That could have far reaching implications as far as how the bacteria can adapt to the host.”


http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/02/gonorrhea-human-genes/

[Ian David]

1. Ghonorrhea with HUMAN BRAINS inside, just like the teabaggers warned us about! n/t

[saras]

2. Add another to the list of "a billion reasons why GM food is a bad idea"

We know far too little, by many orders of magnitude, to be schlepping genes around between organisms. We're about at the point where 'chemists' had just discovered that fire changes materials in interesting ways. And we're proposing to re-engineer the whole planet with our new-found 'knowledge'.

[laconicsax]

5. !

:rofl:

[Tumbulu]

6. I agree (nt)

[NickB79]

8. If anything, it shoots to hell one of the scare tactics opponents of GM crops use

Because it shows that the same methods used to create GM crops are at work daily, in everything around us, and have been for billions of years.

If eating GM food scares you because you fear rampant gene transfers, then this article shows that you should be afraid of EVERYTHING you ingest into your body that has been derived from any animal or plant, GM or not.

[DCKit]

3. So THAT's where Republicans come from. nt

[formercia]

4. Parallel Evolution

Republicans didn't evolve from Monkeys, they evolved from the clap.

[xchrom]

7. ...

:scared: