Whiteflies have acquired dozens of genes from plants they eat

A large harvest pest has 50 genes that look to originate from plants, and it mightiness usage them to detoxify plants’ chemic defences

Life 27 January 2022

By Jake Buehler

Silverleaf whiteflies (Bemisia tabaci)

Nigel Cattlin / Alamy

Whiteflies look to person taken the saying “you are what you eat” somewhat literally. New probe suggests the tiny, herbivorous insects person incorporated dozens of genes from plants into their ain genome.

This measurement of genes jumping from works to carnal acold exceeds what was antecedently known successful insects, and whitethorn pb to caller ways to power this large pest of effect and rootlike crops.

When DNA is passed betwixt abstracted branches connected the histrion of life, it is called horizontal cistron transfer. It is chiefly known …