Talmudic Question #66

What if someone found an organism whose genes assignation is 1/3 bacterial, 1/3 archaeal, and 1/3 unknown?

We jumped the gun and posed this question to our friend Ramy Aziz. He responded with answers that reflect various phylogenetic points of view.

• Scientist A thinks this organism is whatever its ribosomal DNA tells us it is.
• Scientist B believes it's whatever its recA gene tells us it is.
• Scientist C proposes that this is proof that there is no tree of life, but rather a reticulum.
• Scientist D declares that, whatever it is, it’s certainly not a prokaryote (as there is no such thing).
• Scientist E tells us that it's an unknown organism that ate both a bacterium and an archaeon.
• Scientist F puts forth that that proves there is a fourth domain of life, or — just wait a while — that it's a synthetic, biologically-created hybrid.
• Scientist G says that it's proof of a viral origin of life.

And yours?

 
 

 
 

Comments

[Ryan Frisch]

Scientist P argues that 1/3 unknown are uncharacterized transposases.