HN Explorer

30 comments

[ 2.3 ms ] story [ 21.8 ms ] thread
pazimzadeh
Seems par for the course since our adaptive immune system is based on an old viral/transposon recombinase.

Transposon Molecular Domestication and the Evolution of the RAG Recombinase

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6494689/

Here is the actual study:

Escape of the BC200 gene to a human poxvirus reveals its persistent transposition in primates

https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aeh3441

shevy-java
Is VDJ recombination based on viruses or transposons?

It's the first time I hear this. Can't yet say much about it until I can verify that.

pazimzadeh
Yes, the RAG transposon inserted itself into a variable domain exon about 500 million years ago. Here’s a more recent paper on this:

Origin of immunoglobulins and T cell receptors: A candidate gene for invasion by the RAG transposon

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40614193/

> It's the first time I hear this. Can't yet say much about it until I can verify that.

How are you going to verify it?

odmcownckexnn
Can we please start banning articles with paywalls from being posted at all?

If I cannot read without a subscription (or a damn paywall removed), it shouldn’t be posted here. This is tantamount to posting an ad for an NYT sub.

creatonez
The HN rules are that paywalled content can be posted only if it's trivially bypassable via a free tool. The NYTimes links work on fresh IP addresses, which is why the proxy-based archive website archive.today is able to get through. I'm not a big fan of this being allowed, but there is some thought to it at least, they aren't just allowing anything.
Terr_
IMO a good approach would be to surface the status of links to readers, with an icon for "pay-walled" or "register-walled", then see how organic voting affects things.
tedd4u
I like that idea but aren't we supposed to read the article before voting?
Mistletoe
I’m just always amazed that this many HN readers pay for the NY Times or any of the other publications constantly posted here with paywalls.
metalman
while that would be nice, generaly there are many knowledgeable comments several pay grades abovethe nyt staff, here in the comments, which if you wait for them to build and then do a page search for your terms of interest, can often take you painlessly to a susinct synopsis of the issues under discussion
baranul
Probably the problem is ignored because of well known archive sites that circumvent the subscription issue. But, I do agree with the suggestion of marking posts as paywalled, to give people more choice on whether to open them.
shevy-java
There was no theft involved. "Genes" are not "owned".
AnimalMuppet
If the virus didn't evolve the gene on its own, then "stole" seems like a fair description of how it got it.
wormius
You wouldn't download a gene, would you?
Mistletoe
I’d actually love to, can I swap out many of mine with LeBron and Albert Einstein? Anyone got the torrent link?
bell-cot
I suspect the original author's copyright had expired, so the gene was public domain.
meatbundragon
Gift link since people were complaining about the NYT paywall - https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/28/science/virus-molluscum-h...
ninju
Or if you don't want to share your email address with NYT

https://archive.ph/PpKtR

meatbundragon
Do you have to type in your email even with the gift link?
creatonez
Yep. They recently changed it to require a free account. The days of nytimes gift links being non-enshittified are over.