ORIGINS OF SPECIES - ACQUIRED GENOMES AND INDIVIDUALITY

Entire genomes with their accompanying protein synthetic systems are t ransferred throughout the biosphere primarily as bacteria and protists which become symbionts as they irreversibly integrate into pre-existi ng organisms to form more complex individuals. Individualization is st abilized by simultaneous transmission of once-separate heterologous ge netic systems. The origin of new species is hypothesized to correlate with the acquisition, integration and subsequent inheritance of such a cquired microbial genomes. These processes were recognized by Mereschk ovsky (''Symbiogenesis'' in Russian, 1909) and by Wallin (''Symbiontic ism'', see p. 181, this issue).