Towards identifying innate genetic immunity mechanisms in eukaryotes: How do cells distinguish chromosomal from non-chromosomal DNA?

Prokaryotes have both innate and adaptive immunity systems to protect themselves against the intrusion and deleterious effects of foreign DNA molecules such as viruses and plasmids. However, despite the fact that eukaryotes appear tom protect their genome even more efficiently than bacteria against lateral gene transfer, we still know very little about how they do so. Here, we will use the case of budding and fission yeast to investigate whether eukaryotes distinguish chromosomal from non-chromosomal DNA to prevent the propagation of the later, and how they do so.