>Bill wrote: >>>>One interesting find is that bacteria can "infect" the egg
>DNA of invertebrates ...<<<<

This is another new field of discovery and one that may require a complete
rewrite of the text books on genetics, agriculture, and medicine. 

> As if natural variation were not enough, microbes also "cheat." Not
content to rely on their own genetic defenses, bacteria and many viruses are
capable of "borrowing" the resistance of other species. Many researchers
believe that this process, known as horizontal gene transfer, is the real
cause of the rapid growth of antibiotic resistance in a host of organisms,
from the farmyard to the hospital. In horizontal gene transfer, the
resistance genes from one bacterial strain are transferred as an intact
plasmid (a circular pseudochromosome frequent in many bacteria) or as a
portion of pseudosexually transmitted piece of broken DNA to a close
relative or even to a comparatively unrelated species. Researchers think
that the bacterium Haemophilus influenzae, the cause of ear infections,
picked up resistance during a natural gene transfer from a harmless strain
of Escherichia coli, the gut bacteria.

from
The Red Queen's Race 
http://pubs.acs.org/hotartcl/tcaw/99/jan/queen.html

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