Despite some concerns over the transfer of DNA from one organism to another to create genetically modified crops and animals, Mother Nature has been quietly shuffling genomes for ages–including in humans. Scientists have discovered “jumping genes” known as transposons and retrotransposons that can even move from one unrelated organism to another, possibly transported by tics or other third parties, conferring no know or unknown evolutionary benefits. The finding directly contradicts a central canon of anti-GMO activists who claim that surgically moving genes from one organism to another is somehow different from what occurs far more randomly in nature.
Additional Resources:
- “Recently Mobilized Transposons in the Human and Chimpanzee Genomes,” The American Journal of Human Genetics
- “Transposons: The Jumping Genes,” Scitable
- “Generating and manipulating transgenic animals using transposable elements,” Reproductive Biology and Endocrinology
- “More Variation in Human Genome Than Expected: Surprisingly Common Transposons or ‘Jumping Genes’ Are Known to Cause Disease,” Science Daily
View the original article here: How a quarter of the cow genome came from snakes
