GardenBanter.co.uk - View Single Post - pine pollen cones similar to apple-cedar rust ; new book: Cancers ofa species as a major source of "new microbes into the world"

Sean Houtman[_2_] · 09-06-2009, 10:51 AM posted to sci.bio.botany,sci.med,sci.bio.misc

wrote in news:598df564-c5bc-4d2b-9560-
:

The theory I have on this subject is that many, perhaps a majority
of diseases from microbes, including viruses are due to a cancer
in a species for which the cancer mutated and became a
"new microbe" or a "new species of microbe".

Today we see new microbes such as bird flu and HIV. My new
theory would say that in the case of these two diseases, if traced
back far enough, it is likely or probable that a cancer of a species
was the origin of that disease of bird-flu or HIV.

Viruses tend to have very small genomes, perhaps 5-20 genes, plants and
animals have much larger genomes, on the order of hundreds of thousands
or more. Many viruses don't have DNA, they use RNA instead. RNA viruses
couldn't be descended from a DNA organism through mutation. Some viruses
have circular DNA like bacteria, some don't. It is difficult to
speculate on how viruses may have come into existence.

The idea of this theory or theme is that many if not most microbes
that cause diseases had their origins as a cancer of a specific
species.

So, is there an expert on apple-cedar rust, and has the genome of it
been deciphered? And has the genome of pine been diciphered?
and has the genome of apple and cedar been deciphered? Have
all four been deciphered? Thence, tell me if the Rust is more related
to the pine genome?

Rusts and other fungi aren't closely related to plants. Fungi don't have
plastids. There are also differences in the way that spindles form
during meiosis, and very large differences in how they reproduce. Most
likely the reason that the Cedar Apple rust on your cedar trees
resembles the pine cones, is that the rust is manipulating the hormones
that the cedar uses. If the hormones are produced properly, it might
cause a plant to grow a reproductive-like structure where there
shouldn't be one. Since the cedar is relatively closely related to the
pine, it can be made to grow a cone, which is the natural reproductive
structure of the cedar anyway. Add the rust organism, and the cone may
closely resemble a pine pollen cone.

Sean

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