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To: decimon
... organisms acquire genetic material "horizontally" from other organisms around them, rather than vertically from their parents or ancestors ...

That means "organisms" evolve individually while they're still alive ... which means gene structures change within the organism's lifespan ... I'm not a biologist but this doesn't sound quite right ...

5 posted on 02/01/2010 4:42:24 AM PST by Ken522
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To: Ken522

We have seen for decades that microbes can pick up antibiotic resistance from other microbes outside their own species.

It sounds like this guy is studying the effects of gene transfers outsied of antibiotic resistance.

It is a reasonable field of study based on the behavior of bacteria already seen and documented.


10 posted on 02/01/2010 5:53:11 AM PST by dangerdoc
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To: Ken522
That means "organisms" evolve individually while they're still alive ... which means gene structures change within the organism's lifespan ... I'm not a biologist but this doesn't sound quite right ...

With microorganisms, introduction of exogenous DNA can enable them to function in ways they did not before (e.g. they become resistant to antibiotics that previously would have killed them). In complex organisms, insertion of exogenous DNA can have a number of different effects (cancer is one). A large fraction of mammalian (including human) DNA is thought to be of viral origin; we have a complex set of mechanisms for maintaining those viral sequences in an inactive state, so they don't kill us.

18 posted on 02/01/2010 8:28:09 AM PST by exDemMom (Now that I've finally accepted that I'm living a bad hair life, I'm more at peace with the world.)
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