chloroplast and other genes (was Lucy in Newsweek)

[Curtis Clark]

At 14:18 2004-04-06, HJJACOBSON at AOL.COM wrote:
>In some insects there are bacteria and at least one virus I know of that are
>transmitted and only transmitted through the egg. Could the infection pattern
>be considered phylogentic? Some have suggested they are on their way to
>becoming organelles. For that matter could mitochondria considered a
>non-genomic
>indicator of phylogeny?

The difference is that mitochondria are almost always transferred; these
bacteria and viruses may or may not be, so their presence is informative
but their absence is not.


--
Curtis Clark                  http://www.csupomona.edu/~jcclark/
Web Coordinator, Cal Poly Pomona                 +1 909 979 6371
Professor, Biological Sciences                   +1 909 869 4062