Virus Stole a Human Gene and Won't Let Go of It | Hacker News Reader

Virus Stole a Human Gene and Won't Let Go of It

nytimes.com

100 pointsgumby39 comments

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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

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.

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?

This brings a whole new meaning to sores. Has this infection been previously identified? Edit: Yes https://www.cdc.gov/molluscum-contagiosum/about/index.html

I guess it just hadn't been linked to human genes before.

this head line has the wrong end of the stick, the gene in question is a known transposable element AKA a jumping gene, so no a virus didnt steal a gene.

A transposable element partook of vertical gene flow to a conspecific expression system.

https://news.cornell.edu/stories/2026/09/new-type-human-jump...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transposable_element

Gift link since people were complaining about the NYT paywall - https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/28/science/virus-molluscum-h...

Or if you don't want to share your email address with NYT

https://archive.ph/PpKtR

This must be microbe awareness day.

Earlier iirc someone posted

https://www.cbc.ca/news/health/cancer-infections-9.7361622

I thought viruses weren't considered to be microbes. Was I mistaken? Is there a broader category that includes things like bacteria and also viruses?

In the context of "things that cause diseases", "pathogen" covers both. But that isn't exactly an answer to your question.

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.

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 as part of a free allowance for new readers, 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.

It is a shame that the free tool of choice is a site that put a DDOS attack in its captcha. So my options are not read the article or... not read the article. Nice.

You say that like "commit a felony to read the article" isn't a valid option (/s).

That’d be sensible reasoning IF the articles were already posted with a paywall-free url, but they are not, so as it stands these are essentially just ads.

IIRC the staff will usually intentionally elevate bypass links to the top whenever they see them posted in the comments. (And when a link has already been posted they tend to sink comments like yours that complain without providing a link, lol)

Again, why not require the bypassed link right from the gate, then? You’d sidestep people complaining about it and wouldn’t little the comment section with people posting alternative links or asking for them.

NYT is the only one profiting getting free publicity for their subscription service here.

Did you create three accounts just to reply? And if so why not stick to just one?

I speculated in a different reply that it’s to reduce dups. Two people could post the same article, but if they used different paywall-bypassers they would appear as separate submissions.

Link the original article with a paywall flag. If paywall, require paywall-bypasser, and link both articles to submission.

My understanding is you’re not supposed to post paywall-cutting links but it’s ok to post them as comments. Perhaps to prevent dupes? Or perhaps there is no such rule.

People do it all the time for LWN. NYT offers subscribers a similar ability to generate free links to paywalled content.

FYI, many US public libraries offer free access to NYT subscription content (which can be used to generate free links).

The NYT subscriber links recently changed, it now requires making a free account to use the link.

But to be clear, the rule is against unofficial mirroring. Officially sanctioned methods are fine.

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.

I like that idea but aren't we supposed to read the article before voting?

So if I posted a link to something nobody can actually read, does that mean all downvotes are unfair violations if the social contract?

Availability is itself a meaningful feature for curating the feed.

Sometimes the comment section rescues things, other times it's a decision between two competing submissions, where—all else being equal—the accessible version ought to win.

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.

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

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.

Can't read through the paywall

https://archive.ph/PpKtR

Ah yes, the NYT paywall.

Here you go everyone: https://archive.ph/PpKtR

Looking forward to the alex jones take on this /s

There was no theft involved. "Genes" are not "owned".

If the virus didn't evolve the gene on its own, then "stole" seems like a fair description of how it got it.

You wouldn't download a gene, would you?

I’d actually love to, can I swap out many of mine with LeBron and Albert Einstein? Anyone got the torrent link?

I suspect the original author's copyright had expired, so the gene was public domain.

"Copied" or "borrowed" might work.

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