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Comment
. 2011 Apr 26;2(3):e00067-11.
doi: 10.1128/mBio.00067-11. Print 2011.

Taking the gonococcus-human relationship to a whole new level: implications for the coevolution of microbes and humans

William M Shafer  1 , Elizabeth A Ohneck
Affiliations
Comment

Taking the gonococcus-human relationship to a whole new level: implications for the coevolution of microbes and humans

William M Shafer et al. mBio. .

Abstract

While horizontal gene transfer occurs frequently among bacterial species, evidence for the transfer of DNA from host to microbe is exceptionally rare. However, the recent report by Anderson and Seifert [mBio 2(1):e00005-11, 2011] provides evidence for such an event with the finding that 11% of Neisseria gonorrhoeae strains harbor a 685-bp sequence that is 98 to 100% identical to the human long interspersed nuclear element L1. While the function of this element in gonococci remains unclear, this finding significantly impacts our consideration of the coevolution of hosts and microbes, particularly that of humans and pathogens.

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References

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