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Tyrosine_Lannister OP t1_j6ljaoj wrote

The author basically makes the case that gut bacteria are "gene modules" or "programs" that can be installed on the OS that is a mammalian body—and that a number of useful traits can be acquired without messing around with CRISPR or anything, just by developing the right species as a probiotic. Too good to be true? There's a lot of depth to the biology of the microbiome...

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AnotherQuark t1_j6p3iu5 wrote

I read once that our mammalian ancestors originally took the dna coding needed to evolve a placenta from a virus.

Apparently there's a phenomenon of dna swapping between viruses and their hosts. I realize that viruses work a lot differently than bacteria when it comes to doing what they do, and how they do it. But, i imagine it at least wouldn't be impossible for similar things to happen with other organisms.

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Skavis t1_j6mutjc wrote

"argument" "most promising" "biohacker" "app store".

Not the title of an article I want to read.

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Tyrosine_Lannister OP t1_j6mwfra wrote

FWIW the title of the actual article is "Forget gene therapy, microbes are the future of medicine"

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CircaSixty8 t1_j6lq2uj wrote

Lately I'm feeding my microbiome probiotics Like there's no tomorrow. Good to know I'm ahead of the curve.

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