Gene transmit among Species is amazingly widespread

March 12, 2007 |17:46 | By : Waqar Ikram

Bacteria are known to share genes, spreading drug resistance. But how frequent is it in other organisms, including mammals like us? New studies show that most bacteria have genes or large groups of genes shared by other bacteria. Even among higher organisms, shared genes are the rule rather than the exception. Such gene flow, dubbed horizontal gene transfer, has been seen frequently in bacteria, allowing pathogenic bacteria, for example, to share genes conferring resistance to a drug. Recently, two different species of plants were shown to share genes as well They found that more than half of all the most primitive organisms, Archaea, have one or more protein genes acquired by horizontal gene transfer, as compared to 30 to 50 percent of bacteria that have acquired genes this way. Fewer than 10 percent of eukaryotes - plants and animals - have genes acquired via horizontal gene transfer. Two species of bacteria living together in the pink slime of an acidic California mine were found to share large groups of genes. These genes code for proteins that work together, so by acquiring the entire block from another organism, bacteria can gain a new function that helps them adapt more quickly to the same type of environment - in this case, a hot, highly acidic, metal-rich broth.

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