Common Aquatic Animal's Genome Can Capture Foreign DNA (Wild!)

[n2doc]

Common Aquatic Animal's Genome Can Capture Foreign DNA
ScienceDaily (May 30, 2008) — Long viewed as straitlaced spinsters, sexless freshwater invertebrate animals known as bdelloid rotifers may actually be far more promiscuous than anyone had imagined: Scientists at Harvard University have found that the genomes of these common creatures are chock-full of DNA from plants, fungi, bacteria, and animals.

The finding, described May 30 in the journal Science, could take the sex out of sexual reproduction, showing that bdelloid rotifers, all of which are female, can exchange genetic material via other means.

"Our result shows that genes can enter the genomes of bdelloid rotifers in a manner fundamentally different from that which, in other animals, results from the mating of males and females," says Matthew S. Meselson, Thomas Dudley Cabot Professor of the Natural Sciences in Harvard's Faculty of Arts and Sciences.

In essence, Meselson and colleagues say, bdelloids may acquire DNA by habitually disintegrating their genomes -- something these unusual animals do regularly during periods of desiccation, which fractures their genetic material and ruptures cellular membranes. Miraculously, bdelloids can then spring back to life upon rehydration of their habitats, readily reconstituting their genomes and their membranes.

more:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/05/080529141401.htm

[kestrel91316]

1. I think rotifers are really cool. I suppose that makes me a bit odd....

[Crunchy Frog]

2. Do you treat them in your practice?

:)

[kestrel91316]

3. Nah. I don't do exotics. ROFLMAO.

[DCKit]

4. Oh Noes!1l1l!!! It's Evil-oution in Action!l1!!l

Discovery or the Science channel had a show on last week in which was mentioned that the greatest explosion of species happened while the Earth was being bombarded with asteroids.

Rotifers eat whatever is available and asteroid impacts pulverize everything, including living tissue.

I know I'm going to hell for saying it, but extrapolation from the two (totally damned) ideas is too much for this evolutionist. Wait a minute.... no, it didn't give me a migraine OR a stroke and, as I type, Jesus hasn't come to tell me I'm wrong.

[Poll_Blind]

5. Holy crap, that's sweet. I want to see some geno-porn of how that actually works.

Adds a Z-axis to the punnit square!
PB