[ababaian]

How would they exist/maintain themselves without it's DNA counterpart?

[trebligdivad]

ah, have you shown that there is no matching DNA in either the host or any of the bacteria that the host has?

[richieartoul]

The paper says: “in companion DNA-seq data from this project, no detectable Obelisk reads are found” which I think is getting at what you’re asking, but I’m not sure if my understanding is correct.

I’m also not sure if DNA-seq data refers to the human host, or just all DNA they were able to sequence (which would include bacteria as well I guess?)