Abstract:A number of studies have highlighted that adsorption to minerals increases DNA longevity in the environment. Such DNA-mineral associations can essentially serve as pools of genes that can be stored across time. Importantly, this DNA is available for incorporation into alien organisms through the process of horizontal gene transfer. Here we argue that minerals hold an unrecognized potential for successfully transferring genetic material across environments and timescales to distant organisms and hypothesize tha… Show more
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