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HORIZONTAL GENE TRANSFER1. Spisak S, Solymosi N, Ittzes P, Bodor A, Kondor D, et al (2013) : CompleteGenes May Pass from Food to Human Blood. PLoS ONE 8(7): e69805.Our bloodstream is considered to be an environment well separated from theoutside world and the digestive tract. According to the standard paradigm largemacromolecules consumed with food cannot pass directly to the circulatorysystem. During digestion proteins and DNA are thought to be degraded intosmall constituents, amino acids and nucleic acids, respectively, and then absorbedby a complex active process and distributed to various parts of the body throughthe circulation system. Here, based on the analysis of over 1000 human samplesfrom four independent studies, we report evidence that meal-derived DNAfragments which are large enough to carry complete genes can avoid degradationand through an unknown mechanism enter the human circulation system. In oneof the blood samples the relative concentration of plant DNA is higher than thehuman DNA. The plant DNA concentration shows a surprisingly precise lognormaldistribution in the plasma samples while non-plasma (cord blood) controlsample was found to be free of plant DNA.http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.00698052. Zhang L, Hou D, Chen X, et al. (2012) : Exogenous plant MIR168a specificallytargets mammalian LDLRAP1: Evidence of cross-kingdom regulation bymicroRNA. Cell Res. 22(1):107-26 (Erratum in: Cell Res. 22(1) :273-4)Our previous studies have demonstrated that stable microRNAs (miRNAs) inmammalian serum and plasma are actively secreted from tissues and cells andcan serve as a novel class of biomarkers for diseases, and act as signalingmolecules in intercellular communication. Here, we report the surprising findingthat exogenous plant miRNAs are present in the sera and tissues of variousanimals and that these exogenous plant miRNAs are primarily acquired orally,through food intake. MIR168a is abundant in rice and is one of the most highlyenriched exogenous plant miRNAs in the sera of Chinese subjects. Functionalstudies in vitro and in vivo demonstrated that MIR168a could bind to the human/mouse low-density lipoprotein receptor adapter protein 1 (LDLRAP1) mRNA,inhibit LDLRAP1 expression in liver, and consequently decrease LDL removalfrom mouse plasma. These findings demonstrate that exogenous plant miRNAsin food can regulate the expression of target genes in mammals.3. Chen J, Jin M, Qiu ZG, Guo C, Chen ZL, Shen ZQ, Wang XW, Li JW. (2012) :A survey of drug resistance bla genes originating from synthetic plasmidvectors in six Chinese rivers Environ Sci Technol. 46(24) :13448-54.Antibiotic resistance poses a significant challenge to human health and its ratecontinues to rise globally. While antibiotic-selectable synthetic plasmid vectors(179)