![Alien bits of DNA that inhabit single-celled microorganisms known as archaea, shown here in a scanning-electron microscope image, appear to assimilate the genes of their hosts, much like the Borg in Star Trek. These large lengths of DNA may be augmenting archaea’s ability to remove methane from soil and thus could play a role in reducing this potent greenhouse gas.](https://qb3.berkeley.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Archaea750px-300x200.jpeg)
Like the Borg of Star Trek, these ‘aliens’ assimilate DNA from other microbes
October 20, 2022
Only a meter or two below our feet dwells a wealth of microbes whose riches remain largely unexplored. It’s a realm where bacteria, bacteria-like organisms called archaea and fungi mingle with viruses and other non-living bits of DNA or DNA — all living with, in or on one another. In that alien world, researchers have…