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Plagiarized bacterial genes in the human book of life
1MRC Functional Genetics Unit, Dept of Human Anatomy and Genetics, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford, UK OX1 3QX. Chris.Ponting@anat.ox.ac.uk
Abstract:
The initial analysis of the human genome draft sequence reveals that our 'book of life' is multi-authored. A small but significant proportion of our genes owes their heritage not to antecedent eukaryotes but instead to bacteria. The publicly funded Human Genome Project study indicates that about 0.5% of all human genes were copied into the genome from bacterial sources. Detailed sequence analyses point to these 'horizontal gene transfer' events having occurred relatively recently. So how did the human 'book of life' evolve to be a chimaera, part animal and part bacterium? And what was the probable evolutionary impact of such gene plagiarism?