Recommendable! Amazing stuff! Nature is full of surprises! 😄
"In the first known example of horizontal gene transfer between a plant and an animal, a common pest known as the whitefly (Bemisia tabaci) acquired a gene from the one of the various plants it feeds on, researchers reported today (March 25) in Cell. The gene, BtPMaT1, protects the insects from phenolic glycosides, toxins that many plants produce to defend themselves against such pests, thus allowing the whiteflies to feast. ...
Horizontal gene transfer is the nonsexual swapping of genes between species. It’s been documented previously between single-celled organisms and even between some eukaryotes such as fungi and beetles. ...
Next, the team went searching for the gene’s evolutionary roots using the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) databases of genomes. No other insects shared the gene or even one similar to it. It had to have come from somewhere else. ...
The team suspects that a virus in a plant took up the gene about 35 million years ago, then a whitefly ate that infected plant. The virus transferred the gene to the insect’s genome, and it then became fixed in the population. ..."
Horizontal gene transfer is the nonsexual swapping of genes between species. It’s been documented previously between single-celled organisms and even between some eukaryotes such as fungi and beetles. ...
Next, the team went searching for the gene’s evolutionary roots using the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) databases of genomes. No other insects shared the gene or even one similar to it. It had to have come from somewhere else. ...
The team suspects that a virus in a plant took up the gene about 35 million years ago, then a whitefly ate that infected plant. The virus transferred the gene to the insect’s genome, and it then became fixed in the population. ..."
"... Plant-mediated silencing of BtPMaT1 confers tomato full resistance to whiteflies ...
Plants protect themselves with a vast array of toxic secondary metabolites, yet most plants serve as food for insects. The evolutionary processes that allow herbivorous insects to resist plant defenses remain largely unknown. ...
we show that, through an exceptional horizontal gene transfer event, the whitefly has acquired the plant-derived phenolic glucoside malonyltransferase gene BtPMaT1. This gene enables whiteflies to neutralize phenolic glucosides. This was confirmed by genetically transforming tomato plants to produce small interfering RNAs that silence BtPMaT1, thus impairing the whiteflies’ detoxification ability."
Plants protect themselves with a vast array of toxic secondary metabolites, yet most plants serve as food for insects. The evolutionary processes that allow herbivorous insects to resist plant defenses remain largely unknown. ...
we show that, through an exceptional horizontal gene transfer event, the whitefly has acquired the plant-derived phenolic glucoside malonyltransferase gene BtPMaT1. This gene enables whiteflies to neutralize phenolic glucosides. This was confirmed by genetically transforming tomato plants to produce small interfering RNAs that silence BtPMaT1, thus impairing the whiteflies’ detoxification ability."
Here is the link to the underlying research article:
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