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DetlefK

(16,423 posts)
Mon Sep 22, 2014, 08:14 AM Sep 2014

Wasps use the viral DNA hiding in their own DNA as a biochemical tool

http://io9.com/before-wasps-enslaved-caterpillars-they-enslaved-a-vir-1637318702

If a wasp lays an egg into a caterpillar, why doesn't the immune-system of the caterpillar destroy it? Because the wasp at the same time injects a virus into the caterpillar. Or to be more exact: The wasp injects a part of a virus, whose only capacity is now to weaken the immune-system of the caterpillar. The virus is unable to reproduce and it doesn't even have a shell. So, where does it come from? The wasp builds them in a special section of its ovaries.


http://www.nature.com/news/2009/090212/full/news.2009.97.html

Quote: "...suggesting that an ancient nudivirus had inserted its DNA into the wasp genome before these species diverged."
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Wasps use the viral DNA hiding in their own DNA as a biochemical tool (Original Post) DetlefK Sep 2014 OP
I love science. nt littlemissmartypants Sep 2014 #1
Viral RNA? DNA insertion? Wildly different species sharing genes? NickB79 Sep 2014 #2

NickB79

(19,253 posts)
2. Viral RNA? DNA insertion? Wildly different species sharing genes?
Mon Sep 22, 2014, 12:37 PM
Sep 2014

OMG, wasps are practicing genetic engineering!

Quick, someone pass a law banning wasps from doing such unnatural acts, such perversions of nature!

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