Tree of Life: Are big changes looming on the horizon?

All species like some gadgets

While movie hero James Bond gets his spy gadgets from his loyal developer Q, almost every other species on Earth has to put a little more effort in armoring themselves. But that does not mean they cannot rely on some good ol’ friends to do so. In fact, the acquisition of genes from two or more species through lateral gene transfer can lead to innovations that at times can be painful—sometimes even deadly—to others.

One of those evolutionary novelties is noticeable for certain types of jellyfish that developed the ability to sting after their ancestors acquired a gene from a bacterium and incorporated that material in their own DNA. This gene transmission helped jellyfish to create an innovative defense tool to fend off other species that could endanger them. The result is quite frightening: more humans get killed by jellyfish than sharks. (more…)

January 21, 2013 | Categories: Building Open Tree | Tags: #opentree, Archaea, Bacteria, biology, Darwin, DNA, DNA sequencing, domains of life, Eukaryotes, evolution, evolutionary biology, evolutionary trees, frankenstein, horizontal gene transfer, James Bond, jellyfish, lateral gene transfer, lineages, national science foundation, network, open tree of life, phylogeny, research, science, sequencing, species, spider, sushi, tree of life, web | 1 Comment