Horizontal gene transfer occurs routinely among bacteria through a process called conjugation. Bacteria literally inject their neighbour with a chunk of DNA.<p>This is what the molecular apparatus looks like from the surface membrain of a bacterium.<p><a href="https://youtube.com/watch?v=ihlFqOK5cZM" rel="nofollow">https://youtube.com/watch?v=ihlFqOK5cZM</a>
We're on the cusp of a huge revolution in genetic engineering. I figure it's like what the computer industry was like in 1980.<p>An awful lot of money is going to be made.
I can't find it back but there was a blog post explaining that earth plants could have been red instead of just green.
Do you imagine red forests??
And this is not science fiction at all, brown and red photosynthesis can be as efficient hence why it is very common underwater.
However some contingent "choices" have been made at the origin of photosynthesis and no terrestrial plant has preserved the necessary gens and such gens cannot be developed back. However horizontal gene transfer might be a hope of seeing one day a red planet (though a human made OGMs is likely the best strategy)
There is an interesting curated list of HGT examples at <a href="https://www.panspermia.org/whatsnew103.htm" rel="nofollow">https://www.panspermia.org/whatsnew103.htm</a>
I remember the "Carniferns" from SimEarth and the idea of a plant/animal hybrid is very appealing. I can imagine a distant future where a durable engineered hybrid could be put to use for terraforming.
Reading the paper, I don't understand why the authors conclude that horizontal gene transfer is the most likely explanation, and not independent evolution.
An alternative to evolution.<p>Just don't tell the 'scientists', you will undermine their scriptures now we've gone with a rote learning political science model.<p>Is this where crispr came from?