> Gene sequence similarity, phylogeny, and local divergence of sequence composition indicate that many of their genes were assimilated from methane-oxidizing Methanoperedens archaea. We refer to these elements as “Borgs”.

These elements are named due to the feature of being assimilated, seems like a star trek reference here. :)

Quote from the original paper referenced at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27816108