Gonorrhea Is Poaching Human DNA

We're used to the (rather unpleasant) idea that Gonorrhea, the sexually-transmitted disease, can glom onto us, causing painful urination, rash or fever. But now it turns out we actually impose a bit of ourselves on Neisseria gonorrhoeae, the bacteria that causes the infection.

According to WIRED Magazine, researchers at Northwestern University have found the first-ever example of the direct transfer of a piece of human DNA to a bacterial genome.

In a report to be published in mBio, scientists report that the Gonorrhea bacteria had stolen a sequence of DNA bases from a DNA element found in humans.

So why should we care?

Hank Seifert, one of the paper's authors, shed some light on that in a recent press release:

This has evolutionary significance because it shows you can take broad evolutionary steps when you're able to acquire these pieces of DNA. The bacterium is getting a genetic sequence from the very host it's infecting. That could have far reaching implications as far as how the bacteria can adapt to the host.

Scientific American reports that about 50 million people worldwide get gonorrhea every year and though the infection is curable, it has grown increasingly resistant to antibiotics. Learning more about its human DNA fragment could help scientists find better treatments.

Comments

[Elvin Jijo]

06:36 AM on 02/17/2011

No. It is called God Punishing Us For Our Sinful Ways. On the other hand if gonorreha has human DNA, does that make it into a person like stem cells are? http://www.inspiringmothers.net/pregnancy-health/sex-during-pregnancy.html

[FTracy3]

02:10 PM on 02/15/2011

Very ingenious. The clap, I applaud you.

[lcelidon]

05:19 AM on 02/15/2011

Tell that to Creationists....and by the way, it is Obama s fault.....

[Titanshanks]

03:24 AM on 02/15/2011

When I see gonorrhea putting cream all over people to try and get them to disappear, then I'll be impressed.

[rbenjamin]

10:49 PM on 02/14/2011

This sort of behavior is frowned upon in better parts of the biosphere.

[rtgmath]

10:06 PM on 02/14/2011

Bacteria of all sorts are known for their ability to pick up extra pieces of DNA. Sometimes this is from bacteriophages -- viruses that commonly infect bacteria. Bacteria have been observed exchanging DNA snippets with other bacteria. So for bacteria to pick up pieces of human DNA is not really as remarkable as it might seem. We just haven't observed much that we can definitely identify as being human DNA.

It does point out the fact that evolution occurs in many different ways, and picking up DNA from other sources often confers a survival advantage. Every human has pieces of (now inactive) DNA readily identifiable as coming from a virus. It may have been that incorporation into the genetic code was the best defense against the organism.

We shall have to see what Gonorrhea does. In any case, humans would be wiser to take cautions to avoid and eliminate STDs, but given the disconnect between lust and rational thought, the STDs will continue to flourish -- and change to make them harder to eliminate.

As a note, Russian physicians often use bacteriophages instead of antibiotics. US medicine would do well to explore this direction, but the problem is that doing so is usually cheaper.

[JayZee]

09:04 PM on 02/14/2011

These life forms are older than us...
The parasite plasmodium (malaria) shares dna with an Ivy plant.

More fun stuff here.http://bacteriality.com/

[Ramenra]

06:50 PM on 02/14/2011

Like in "Screamers", they're getting smarter.

[manekineko88]

06:23 PM on 02/14/2011

It would be great if you could provide a link to the actual research article or at least the title.

@onionboy -- this is a big deal because gonorrhea is typically unable to enter the host cell whereas viruses are only able to replicate by infiltrating the host. I don't think this phenomenon has ever been observed in a bacteria.

[ncyim]

10:10 PM on 02/14/2011

I've read that Lyme bacteria can enter cells and hide out there eluding antibiotics. I don't think they replicate inside the cell tho.

[manekineko88]

11:29 PM on 03/09/2011

Many bacteria are able to hide out in host cells (Salmonella, Listeria, Francisella, etc.) in order to evade the immune system or antibiotics. As far as I know though, this is the first observation of bacteria integrating within the host genome.

[sanane10]

01:04 PM on 02/15/2011

here you go: http://mbio.asm.org/content/2/1/e00005-11

[onionboy]

04:50 PM on 02/14/2011

Haven't we known about viruses doing this for many decades now?

[Grimmsd]

07:22 PM on 02/14/2011

It's a bacteria.

[onionboy]

10:20 PM on 02/14/2011

You're absolutely right. I was sort of side-commenting on how much sexier the article is trying to make this sound. Admittedly, saying that a lot of viruses do it and bacteria do it to each other does not make for an article that will be picked up all over. Hence, my non-career as a journalist.