Study: Genetic info swapped between different species

Researchers at Rice University have created a mathematical model that helps build the argument that evolution doesn't proceed solely through breeding and genetic mutations. Rather, organisms also swap large sections of DNA.

The study, published in the January edition of Physics Today, sheds additional light on one of the enduring mysteries of evolution, namely its seemingly accelerating rate of change. Fossil records indicate that single-cell life forms emerged 3.5 billion years ago, and then it took 2.5 billion years for multicell organisms to appear. Animals, plants and birds then took only 1 billion years to develop.

A principal factor in this acceleration is horizontal gene transfer (HGT), according to Michael Deem, the John W. Cox Professor in Biochemical and Genetic Engineering and a professor of physics and astronomy at Rice. In HGT, an organism will give (or exchange) large chunks of its own genetic material to another in a process that can be described as a naturally occurring gene graft.

Proteins produced by the native genetic code of an organism allow the organism to accept and graft the new genes into its own genome.

"It is like having a lot of genetic mutations at once. Enzymes allow DNA to be excised from one species to us," Deem said. "Bacterial geneticists have worked on HGT for 15 to 20 years, but not many of the other evolutionary biologists (have)."

Many HGT insertions, like most genetic mutations, will have no impact on the development of a species, and some transfers will be deleterious, he said. A small fraction of the transfers, however, will lead to sudden, beneficial changes in an organism's genome.

Some studies have stated that the adaptive immune system in humans and vertebrates resulted from an HGT insertion 400 million years ago.

"It led to a dramatic change for invertebrates," he said. "With HGT, a whole population becomes resistant at once."

The mathematical model created by Deem and visiting professor Jeong-Man Park simulates how beneficial HGT insertions propagate across a species.

[CentrOS]

Talk about grabbing at straws! Evolution is a farce!

It's amazing the lengths 'believers' (in evolution) will go to to try
and prop up their faltering theory. Science has progressed beyond
you. The evidence for design is building day by day, as it
simultaneously corrects the 'evidence' for evolution. What exactly
do you have left now anyway? Stop feeding the general public the
lies just because they aren't reading the current scientific literature.

[Techno Guy]

Careless Writing

There is a carelessness in this article that fails to distinguish the theory of this one professor from known processes. Reading this article would likely lead one to assume that his theory is proven. I find this oddly antithetical to the nature of scientific reporting.

[nedmorlef]

always been

it's very difficult to explain to anyone that you saw a ghost. how do you prove it? the only way is to live a life of integrity before you saw the ghost and then and only then would you receive some credit. even film isn't proof.

i saw a ghost...er i heard a ghost...er well i...had an experience that defies explanation. i know that experience was God.

i don't mean to sound doubtful. i know "something" happened and it changed my life forever. i can't make science out of that. i do however now understand why i can't and that's even more interesting.

my point is i can't prove God stopped running the universe and took time out of his day to tap insignificant me on the shoulder and say "follow me".

i can't prove the world isn't flat either . science tells me it's not but,science says things that destroys it's integrity.
however the bible tells me the world is a sphere and that God "hung it in the heavens".

it took science a couple of thousand years to report that. just like the erms the bible talks about that science didn't learn of until the micoscope came along.

given the record of science and my intimate knowledge of God, I choose to trust God when he says he has always been. that's a lot easier than to believe something as intricate as life "just happened". just like the day you bought home that puzzle or model and threw it on the table and it came out completed. yeah right bunky!!!

YOU DO REALIZE DARWIN RECANTED!!!that's a historical fact unlike his theory that was made into law in so called christian america.

you go ahead and use all that pea brain that developed from a single cell which fell to earth from space when we can't even get a multi million dollar shuttle through there safely and i will believe in my God that's always been but, if you're american, you didn't get your freedom to have your own opinion from anybody but a bunch of theistic old white guys that copied the statutes of the country they built from a bible.

[aureolin]

Bzzzzt! Wrong answer ...

But, we have some lovely parting gifts.

Sorry, evolution is strictly theory. Not been proved, in whole or in part, in or out of a lab. Try again.

Steve G.

[aureolin]

Everybody *knows*

Remember Columbus? Or did you skip that bit of history? The world was flat because that's what you were taught. "Everybody Knows That".

Nowadays, everyone believes in evolution because that's what you're taught. "Everybody Knows That".

The real problem is that open-minded scientific inquiry is no longer allowed on this subject. The topic has become completely polarized between bad science on one side and religion on the other. Real Science openly welcomes, nay, invites questions. But, questioning evolution is not allowed. (Just look at the responses to this blog post, if you don't believe me). Evolution is dogma, not science.

[Mark Greene]

2,000 year old fairytales and stupid Americans

Yes, I'm one of you.

And I'm ashamed.

If you can't see how evolution makes sense, you're intellectually
hopeless. (That means stupid.)