Genes may travel from plant to plant to fuel evolution
Thursday, February 16, 2012 - 18:00
in Biology & Nature
New research shows genes can travel from plant to plant between distant cousins, not just from one generation to the next. The evolution of plants and animals generally has been thought to occur through the passing of genes from parent to offspring and genetic modifications that happen along the way. But evolutionary biologists from Brown University and the University of Sheffield have documented another avenue, through the passing of genes from plant to plant between species with only a distant ancestral kinship.