At Quanta: “Davis’ team estimated that at least 1.2% of the plant’s genes came from other species, particularly its hosts, past and present. That might not sound impressive, but this kind of horizontal gene transfer is considered exceptionally rare outside of bacteria. So even a single percent of genes arising this way raises eyebrows.” Researchers are still trying to figure out why the parasitic plant has such a huge genome. Commendably, they are not claiming it’s all junk.
Tag: parasites
512 million-year-old parasite found still stuck to its host
Curiously, researchers are pretty sure it was a parasite but what it is, apart from that, remains elusive. It’s an unusual case of knowing more about the organism’s behavior than about the organism itself.
Parasites as “invisible designers” of the human brain
Apparently, design is okay if microbes do it: It seems so obvious that someone should have thought of it decades ago: Since parasites have plagued eukaryotic life for millions of years, their prevalence likely affected evolution. Psychologist Marco Del Giudice of the University of New Mexico is not the first researcher to suggest that the Read More…