Cross-species gene transfer is a major driver of evolution, study claims

New research suggests horizontal gene transfer between different species is a major driver of evolution. Scientists at the University of Adelaide traced the origins of two different jumping genes, self-replicating DNA sequences, across 759 species of plants, animals and fungi. The results of the survey, published this week in the journal Genome Biology, suggest the genomes of most modern plants and animals have been shaped by interspecies gene transfer.Researchers determined L1, one of the two studied transposable DNA fragments, began life in the mammalian genome as foreign DNA."Jumping genes, properly called retrotransposons, copy and paste themselves around genomes, and in genomes of other species," lead researcher David Adelson, director of Adelaide's Bioinformatics Hub, said