>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 ****************************************************** * Full guidelines for BEE-L posting are at: * * http://www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/guidelines.htm * ******************************************************