Who needs sex when you can steal DNA?
TINY freshwater organisms that have amazed scientists because of their sex-free lifestyle may have survived so well because they steal genes from other creatures, scientists have reported.
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"Bdelloid rotifers are small freshwater invertebrates that apparently lack sexual reproduction and can withstand desiccation at any life stage," Irina Arkhipova and Matthew Meselson of Harvard University and colleagues wrote in a report in the journal Science.
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"These fascinating animals not only have relaxed the barriers to incorporation of foreign genetic material, but, more surprisingly, they even managed to keep some of these alien genes functional," Ms Arkhipova said in a statement.
Understanding how the animals acquire and make use of these new genes could have implications for medicine.
Edit:
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,23782477-13762,00.html--------------------------
Hmmmm...adverse to sex and stealing from others. Rotifers are Republicans? :evilgrin:
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