Exploring Horizontal Gene Transfer and Multicellular Organisms

Cross-examining the origins of our base pairs

One of our most foundational assumptions is that ‘Our DNA is our own.’ But what if our DNA is stolen? There's a puzzling phenomenon called 'horizontal gene transfer' in which one organisms' genetics jumps to another. Dr. Kaylee Byers is joined by invertebrate specialists Dr. Anna Klompen from the Stowers Institute, and Dr. Jessica Goodheart, a marine biologist hunting for nudibranchs, "gene pirates" of the sea. And Dr. Ted Turlings will tell us how his trip to China led to an exciting discovery about the whitefly -- another common but crafty genetic thief. A final word of advice. Next time a goopy organism bumps into you in a crowd, make sure to check your genes! 

A special thanks to the laboratory of Professor Youjun Zhang Department of Plant Protection, Institute of Vegetables and Flowers, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences in Beijing. Drs. Zhaojiang Guo, Jixing Xia, and Zezhong Yang.

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Highlights:

(00:00) Finding the Transforming Principle

(11:34) A colorful and slick ocean pirate

(17:50) The hunt for a fluttering and destructive gene thief

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Learn-A-Long: https://bit.ly/49qSB4T

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Resources:

Frederick Griffith - British Bacteriologist | Britannica

Griffith’s Experiment - Progress in Molecular Biology and Transitional Science | Science Direct

20 Cool Genomics Facts - 13&14: Antibiotic resistance | Genome BC

Ancient viral DNA may help humans fight infections | National Institute of Health

Venom system variation and the division of labor in the colonial hydrozoan Hydractinia symbiolongicarpus | Science Direct

Nematocyst sequestration evolution | The Goodheart lab

A chromosome-level genome for the nudibranch gastropod Berghia stephanieae helps parse clade-specific gene expression in novel and conserved phenotypes | bioRxiv

First Report of Horizontal Gene Transfer Between Plant and Animal | The Scientist

Pretty Sly for a Whitefly | The Atlantic

First known gene transfer from plant to insect identified | Nature

Whiteflies stole a gene from plants to survive their lethal toxins | Earth.com

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Credit:

Lady Margot Asquith on the outbreak of World War I Roman Styran