"Pablo Rena"  wrote in message
>
> If yes, could humans become amoebas again in a few million
> years?
>
There was a thread a while back about whether HeLa cells (a line of immortal
cancer cells taken from a lady called Henrietta Lacks) qualify as a new
species.

A mutant version could conceivably live independently of the lab, in which
case it would be hard to deny it that title.

There are two answers to your question. Firstly we share some DNA with the
common ancestor of ourselves and amoebas. These include things like
histones - highly conserved proteins which wrap DNA - and mitochondrial
genes, mitochondria are very basic in energy metabolism. Secondly, there is
very occasionally "horizontal transfer" of genetic material from
one species
to another. There's no reason why a gene from an amoeba could not
accidentally get into the human germ line. However this would not turn us
into amoebas, just give us one gene (just as adding a gene for herbicide
resistance to soya plants doesn't do anything noticeable to the beans).
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