Strange DNA 'borgs' discovered in California
By Yasemin Saplakoglu - Staff Writer 1 day ago
Borgs likely belong to a single-celled organism and carries many genes that are unknown to science.
(Image credit: Shutterstock)
Scientists accidentally discovered a mysterious — and unusually large — DNA structure deep in the mud in California wetlands. The structure, known as a "Borg," likely belongs to a single-celled organism and carries many genes that are unknown to science. It's not totally clear what these massive strings of DNA do, but they may help supercharge the organisms' ability to break down chemicals in the soil.
"I haven't been this excited about a discovery since CRISPR," senior author Jillian Banfield, geomicrobiologist at the University of California, Berkeley, wrote on Twitter. (CRISPR is the groundbreaking gene-editing technology that is based on a natural defense mechanism found in bacteria.) "Imagine a strange foreign entity, neither alive nor dead, that assimilates and shares important genes."
Banfield's son suggested naming the structures "Borgs" after the famous Star Trek aliens, who gather and assimilate the technology and knowledge of other alien species. The researchers published their findings, which haven't yet been peer-reviewed, to the preprint database bioRxiv.
Banfield and her team discovered the Borgs while digging deep in California's wetlands for fragments of DNA that are involved in the carbon cycle, the process by which carbon is recycled through the environment, according to Nature. They then identified 19 different types from California and similar areas in Colorado.
More:
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