Researchers Find First Evidence of DNA Swapping Between Insects and Mammals

By Clay Dillow Posted 05.03.2010 at 2:15 pm 12 Comments

The Triatomine Rhodnius prolixus Dr. Erwin Huebner, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada

Think all of your genetic material came straight down to you from further up your family tree? A team of researchers at the University of Texas at Arlington doesn't think so. In a finding that shakes up the prevailing theory that mammals pass on genetic material vertically from parent to progeny, researchers have found hard evidence of horizontal DNA transfer -- swapping genetic material between non-mating species -- between some parasites and their vertebrate hosts.

In other words, mammals -- including humans -- could be carrying around DNA from parasitic insects, and that DNA could potentially be altering human evolution over the long term.

Specifically, the genome biologists found evidence of horizontal DNA transmission in a South American blood-sucking bug as well as a tiny species of pond snail. The genes that made the leap were transposons, segments of DNA that move around within the genome, bouncing around cells replicating and changing the amount of genetic material present. Transposons can cause mutations and changes to genome function in cells, which makes the idea of foreign transposons wandering around in our genomes all the more strange.

The transposons the researchers isolated were found in the parasitic triatomine bug were 98 percent identical to transposons found in opossums and squirrel monkeys that served as their hosts. If monkeys and opossums can horizontally receive transposons with bugs, then there's also a good chance humans might share some transposons with the bug, which regularly dines on human hosts.

The idea of horizontal DNA transfer isn't novel -- we know that millions of years ago some transposons made the leap sideways to enter several mammalian genomes -- but the mechanism by which this occurred was never known. By using computer models of the 102 animals for which we have complete genomes, the team pinpointed the interspecies transposon overlap.

Since nearly half the human genome comes from transposons, the finding could spell serious consequences for our own genome, particularly in terms of how understand our own evolution.

[Science Daily]

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12 Comments

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nicholasjh1

05/03/10 at 2:26 pm

I've read several articles about horizontal transfer from Viruses to the Genome, it's interesting that evidence of horizontal transfer from bugs to mammals has been found too. I'm sure it has happened in humans with the large amount of transposons we have... possibly from lice O.O

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PhilInYork

05/03/10 at 9:00 pm

Someone call Jeff Goldblum, I feel a sequel coming on..."Heeelllp Meeeeee...Heeelllp Meeeeee"

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Jedigeek93

05/03/10 at 9:41 pm

so this means that............SPIDER MAN IS REAL!!!!!!!!!

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HazMatt

05/03/10 at 11:51 pm

This is pretty creepy, but also a little exciting at the same time. It could possibly change our understanding of the process of evolution. Obviously natural selection is probably still the #1 mechanism driving evolution, but it may not be the only one..

Also... Mothra!

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SneakyNature

05/04/10 at 8:43 pm

Although I think the obvious path of genetic crossing might be from insects parasitizing humans, - over 10s of thousands of years, people have also used insects as food, dye and other insect parts have gone into consumer products, and even topical medication. So there is a wide variety of ways in which insect DNA could have been introduced into human physiology. Not all insect uses involved cooking or other DNA-destructive preparation before use. Kids in some tropical countries today will catch and eat insects raw.

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Whys333

05/04/10 at 10:24 pm

A blood sucking gene in humans? So that's where lawyers came from. :)

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mookie

05/04/10 at 11:38 pm

Shouldn't we all be terribly concerned that this phenomenon is the beginning of the zombie-vampire apocalypse? Genomes from parasitic blood sucking insects like triatomine rhodnius prolixus (may they rot in hell) combining with the human genome of their hapless victims will ultimately result in zombie-vampire like creatures that feed on the flesh and blood of mammals and other humans. The explosive population growth of these zombie-vampire mutant insects will result in the devastation of human populations that are in contact with the mutants, until the final war is fought between the forces of mankind and the disorganized but fearsome army of undead zombie-vampire mutants!
May God have mercy on us all!

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ajohnson1986

from Sioux Falls, South Dakota

05/06/10 at 11:43 am

Suddenly the lessons learned from Zombieland and Shaun of the dead don't seem so foolish.....

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potsonna1

05/06/10 at 4:44 pm

Cool! I hope that ev eryone had a happy Cinco De Mayo. That goes for last year and all the other years that I've missed.

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potsonna1

05/06/10 at 4:45 pm