Hela parasitens DNA fanns inkopierad i värdens DNA
...åtminstone allt man testat för. Man upptäckte det på ett ganska kul sätt. För att undvika att få kontaminering av parasiten Wolbachias DNA när man skulle ta fram DNA:t ur en fruktfluga, så dödade man parasitinfektionen med antibiotika. Men trots detta fanns Wolbachia-DNA:t kvar. Detta kan innebära att gener sprider sig på de mest märkliga sätt mellan livsformer...
Läs mer: ScienceDaily: One Species' Entire Genome Discovered Inside Another's
"For several months, I thought I was just failing," says Clark. "I kept administering antibiotics, but every single Wolbachia gene I tested for was still there. I started thinking maybe the strain had grown antibiotic resistance. After months of this I finally went back and looked at the tissue again, and there was no Wolbachia there at all." Clark had cured the fly of the parasite, but a copy of the parasite's genome was still present in the fly's genome. Clark was able to see that Wolbachia genes were present on the second chromosome of the insect.
Läs mer: ScienceDaily: One Species' Entire Genome Discovered Inside Another's