Tyrosine_Lannister OP t1_j6ljaoj wrote on January 31, 2023 at 4:19 AM

The author basically makes the case that gut bacteria are "gene modules" or "programs" that can be installed on the OS that is a mammalian body—and that a number of useful traits can be acquired without messing around with CRISPR or anything, just by developing the right species as a probiotic. Too good to be true? There's a lot of depth to the biology of the microbiome...

AnotherQuark t1_j6p3iu5 wrote on January 31, 2023 at 10:09 PM

I read once that our mammalian ancestors originally took the dna coding needed to evolve a placenta from a virus.

Apparently there's a phenomenon of dna swapping between viruses and their hosts. I realize that viruses work a lot differently than bacteria when it comes to doing what they do, and how they do it. But, i imagine it at least wouldn't be impossible for similar things to happen with other organisms.