Re:Bacteria store memories and pass them on for generations
by tetris11 on Wednesday November 22, 2023 @04:10AM
(#38376865)
That's typically through parasitic/grafting/symbiotic relationships, and even that takes a few half millienia of repeated symbiosis and selective pressures to take. What's being described here is much faster and much more immediate.
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Re:Bacteria store memories and pass them on for generations
by culi on Wednesday November 22, 2023 @09:27AM
(#38379621)
In micro-organisms, HGT happens in a very short timeframe. In fact, some soil fungi have been observed to somehow purposely increase their rates of HGT when put in a new and stressful environment. Borrowing genes from entire other domains of life like bacteria or archaea. Also study after study keeps showing that rates of HGT in complex multicellular species like fish[0][1] and even humans.[2] I'm not trying to be sensational (and generally agree it's likely not that relevant to the current discussion) but one thing that's clear from our consistent underestimation of the prevalence of HGT is that there's still a lot more to it than we currently understand
[0] https://www.quantamagazine.org/dna-jumps-between-animal-spec...