Simon Topp wrote:
>>kailash at jnuniv.ernet.in wrote:
> >
> > Dear Netters,
> > Greeting!
> > I have a query.
> > In a common environment, despite horizontal gene transfer,
> > how is it made possible by the microorganisms, sharing the
> > same environment, to maintain their individual identity?
> > i.e. why two microorganisms do not change so significantly
> > in their genome due to horizontal gene transfer that they
> > merge and a third absolutely new organism if formed.
> > Bye for now
> > i p singh.
Sorry Simon, I had to snip your reply so that I could get this posted.
No criticism implied!
> Simon Topp
> UK Bioinformatics
> SmithKline Beecham Pharmaceuticals
>Simon_Topp-1 at sbphrd.com
As an addition to this debate, it might be useful for the original
poster to check out references by John Maynard Smith in the early
nineties. I remember him giving a series of talks about this subject to
conferences about that time and I think his conclusion was that there
was quite a lot of horizontal transfer about in the bacteria. Mind you,
this was a while ago, so perhaps it would be best to refer to the paper,
and amazingly, I have managed to dredge up the reference:
Maynard Smith, J., Smith, N.H., O'Rourke, M. and Spratt, B.G. 'How
clonal are bacteria?'
Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 90, 4384-4388, 1993.
Hope this helps
Mathew Woodwark
Bioinformatics Project
Zeneca Pharmaceuticals
Mathew.woodwark at alderley.zeneca.com
