GET THEM OFF ME!... oh wait they are me...

[Cochise]

http://www.popsci.com/science/articl...ts-and-mammals

Think all of your genetic material came straight down to you from further up your family tree? A team of researchers at the University of Texas at Arlington doesn't think so. In a finding that shakes up the prevailing theory that mammals pass on genetic material vertically from parent to progeny, researchers have found hard evidence of horizontal DNA transfer -- swapping genetic material between non-mating species -- between some parasites and their vertebrate hosts.


In other words, mammals -- including humans -- could be carrying around DNA from parasitic insects, and that DNA could potentially be altering human evolution over the long term.

Specifically, the genome biologists found evidence of horizontal DNA transmission in a South American blood-sucking bug as well as a tiny species of pond snail. The genes that made the leap were transposons, segments of DNA that move around within the genome, bouncing around cells replicating and changing the amount of genetic material present. Transposons can cause mutations and changes to genome function in cells, which makes the idea of foreign transposons wandering around in our genomes all the more strange.
The transposons the researchers isolated were found in the parasitic triatomine bug were 98 percent identical to transposons found in opossums and squirrel monkeys that served as their hosts. If monkeys and opossums can horizontally receive transposons with bugs, then there's also a good chance humans might share some transposons with the bug, which regularly dines on human hosts.

The idea of horizontal DNA transfer isn't novel -- we know that millions of years ago some transposons made the leap sideways to enter several mammalian genomes -- but the mechanism by which this occurred was never known. By using computer models of the 102 animals for which we have complete genomes, the team pinpointed the interspecies transposon overlap.

Since nearly half the human genome comes from transposons, the finding could spell serious consequences for our own genome, particularly in terms of how understand our own evolution.

[Dontkare]

Since nearly half the human genome comes from transposons, the finding could spell serious consequences for our own genome, particularly in terms of how understand our own evolution.

the finding could spell serious consequences for our own genome, particularly in terms of how understand our own evolution.

particularly in terms of how understand our own evolution.

of how understand our own evolution.

This is all I see

[Zhais]

some guy here had an awesome quote... wish I could find it (search function is damned near useless). Went something to the tune of:

"Our DNA is comprised of the discarded genomic shit of viruses"

[dudeguy]

I thought this was fairly well known already in evolutionary theory for a variety of species... is it just that they are looking at what effect horizontal DNA transfer had on humans specifically?

[Uzor]

I thought this was fairly well known already in evolutionary theory for a variety of species... is it just that they are looking at what effect horizontal DNA transfer had on humans specifically?

Yeah, I too thought this was well-known... Hell, there's even an insect that "adopts" a virus as a pet and infuse it with its own DNA.

For example, here's an article from 2008:

...viruses have not only taken; they have also repaid us in ways we are just beginning to tally. “Viral elements are a large part of the genetic material of almost all organisms,” said Dr. Sharp, who won a Nobel Prize for elucidating details of our genetic code. Base for nucleic base, he said, “we humans are well over 50 percent viral.”

Scientists initially dismissed the viral elements in our chromosomes as so much tagalong “junk DNA.” But more recently some researchers have proposed that higher organisms have in fact co-opted viral genes and reworked them into the source code for major biological innovations, according to Luis P. Villarreal, director of the Center for Virus Research at the University of California, Irvine.

Some genes involved in the growth of the mammalian placenta, for example, have a distinctly viral character, as do genes underlying the recombinant powers of our adaptive immune system — precisely the part that helps us fight off viruses.

And here's another one, albeit from 2010;
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/12/science/12paleo.html

[Kurokikaze]

So in the future we should look like this: ?

http://i654.photobucket.com/albums/u...host_Zorak.jpg

Eggcellent...

[quannum]

I thought this was fairly well known already in evolutionary theory for a variety of species... is it just that they are looking at what effect horizontal DNA transfer had on humans specifically?

The idea of horizontal DNA transfer isn't novel but the mechanism by which this occurred was never known ... the team pinpointed the interspecies transposon overlap.

^

[Sylvrdragon]

Aliens sent genome-altering viruses to earth to stunt the development of our brains so we wouldn't reach the stars before we blow ourselves up. As they increase the duration of humanities war-faring paradigm, our chance of killing ourselves rises exponentially (population, etc.).

Nifty basis for a sci-fi story.

[kuronosan]

Aliens sent genome-altering viruses to earth to stunt the development of our brains so we wouldn't reach the stars before we blow ourselves up. As they increase the duration of humanities war-faring paradigm, our chance of killing ourselves rises exponentially (population, etc.).

Nifty basis for a sci-fi story.

Or a religion.

[Sylvrdragon]

Or a religion.

O.O

L. Ron Hubbard ain't got shit on me!!!

Edit: Actually, one sci-fi author already did it. I won't say which cause it's a major spoiler.

[Gregorio]

Of how understand I evolution, X-Men is a true story.