The horizontal gene transference consists of the phenomenon of step of a fragment of genetic material from an organism to other and his fixation, of the last one, by means of natural selection. For the scientists who work in filogenia it is a problem, since the analyses that they realize do them assuming a linear descent (in vertical). But day by day also it affects us …
Driveling photosynthetic Elysia Chlorotica
In the hospitals there is common the fear of the resistances of antibiotics. Many pathogenic microorganisms have the competition capacity, that is to say, the possibility of acquiring the genetic material of the ambience in certain conditions, so that, if a vine (pathogenic or not) has the aptitude to resist certain antibiotic it is "easy" that this new capacity ends up by coming to pathogenic vines that are being treated by the antibiotic - in this case the antibiotic is the selective pressure that it determines that the resistance is selected-. Once this one remains fixed in the genome of the pathogenic bacterium, the antibiotic treatment becomes useless.
This is an example of how it operates the horizontal gene transference; there are genes that codify a property and that can go on to another microorganism. A selective pressure exists and the new genes remain fixed in the genome of the host. And not only properties of resistance are transferred to antibiotics, but a lot of other metabolic capacities codified in the genome, or also in mobile elements as plásmidos, that are small ADN fragments with aptitude to answer independently of the genome and with many more mobility between related microorganisms.
All this comes to story of news that he was reading it is for a long time that describes that scientists of the University of South have described Florida how a marine slug, Elysia chlorotica, is capable of synthesizing chlorophyll. Although I have not been capable of obtaining the publication, of the reading of the news it is possible to infer that there is a genes step between the seaweed that completes the slug and this one. We would have the case of an animal that makes a vegetable pigment by means of a gene transference between Kingdoms, but it does not stop remaining clear in the news.
In any case, I would take this news with precaution since, I insist, I have not taken access to the scientific publication as what I cannot value until point the experiments are adapted and, científicamente speaking, I have left doubts. But this has served to me to remember this curious phenomenon of horizontal heredity that yes is very real and with a big evolutionary potential.
Olga Zafra
It notices: Recording in Between Burettes (I remove 5, RNE) on this topic
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