Stolen Genes

An article from Science Magazine is posing the question if eukaryotes have had an evolutionary "helping hand" because of their cell nucleus when it comes to genes that are transferred from bacteria. When scientists analyzed the genomes of some red algae, which are single-celled eukaryotes, they found that 1% of the genes came from foreign origins. It is suggested that these genes that were acquired helped them adapt to their environments. Prokaryotes regularly and heavily swap genes within a species and it is suggested that this ability is beneficial to evolution.

I wasn't aware that prokaryotes were capable of swapping genes and would really like to know more about how that works. This article from NCBI talks a little bit about genetic switches. The article stated that the sequencing of the human genome has also suggested that at some point humans may have picked up microbial genes, which I also find very interesting.

Solving the Puzzles of Mimicry in Nature

A New York Times article discusses the recent advances in the understanding of mimicry occurring in nature. This study comes from a similar location to that of Charles Darwin's studies: Brazil. The main individual of study is the butterfly. Mimicry is when an population begins to adapt similar colors, patterns and overall looks to another. In butterfly species, a non-poisonous population will begin to mimic the colors and patterns of poisonous populations. The benefits of this natural occurrence are numerous and help protect the non poisonous populations from becoming prey. Not only were non-poisonous populations mimicking poisonous ones, but poisonous species began mimicking each other. Mueller theorized that in this fashion, the butterflies formed a sort of "army" where all other species would know they were not the be eaten.

Until recently, however, how mimicry occurred was unknown. That was until Mueller proposed that mimicry stemmed from two sources: independent evolution or gene swapping. The genes controlling the causes of mimicry have been recently identified. Using this knowledge, it is safe to say that source of mimicry comes form both mechanisms working cooperatively. Although interbreeding is rarely seen between different populations, due to the extreme advantages of mimicry, one individual can spread the gene through the population quickly.

This mimicry is crucial to the survival of butterfly species in Brazil.