Gene Transfer: Gene Swapping Craze Reaches Eukaryotes

Gene Transfer: Gene Swapping Craze Reaches Eukaryotes

Recent studies have provided evidence for gene transfers from prokaryotes to eukaryotes and between eukaryotes. The mechanisms and frequencies of these transfers remain the subject of speculation, but the findings provide ample reason to seriously consider interspecies gene transfer as an important evolutionary process in eukaryotes.

III.3. Evidence for horizontal gene transfer between eukaryotes and Myxobacteria Evidence for horizontal gene transfer from Eukaryotes to Myxobacteria

Horizontal gene transfer in eukaryotes: The weak-link model

The significance of horizontal gene transfer (HGT) in eukaryotic evolution remains controversial. Although many eukaryotic genes are of bacterial origin, they are often interpreted as being derived from mitochondria or plastids. Because of their fixed gene pool and gene loss, however, mitochondria and plastids alone cannot adequately explain the presence of all, or even the majority, of bacteri...

Endosymbiotic gene transfer from prokaryotic pangenomes: Inherited chimerism in eukaryotes.

Endosymbiotic theory in eukaryotic-cell evolution rests upon a foundation of three cornerstone partners--the plastid (a cyanobacterium), the mitochondrion (a proteobacterium), and its host (an archaeon)--and carries a corollary that, over time, the majority of genes once present in the organelle genomes were relinquished to the chromosomes of the host (endosymbiotic gene transfer). However, not...

Endosymbiotic and horizontal gene transfer in microbial eukaryotes

The evolution of microbial eukaryotes, in particular of photosynthetic lineages, is complicated by multiple instances of endosymbiotic and horizontal gene transfer (E/HGT) resulting from plastid origin(s). Our recent analysis of diatom membrane transporters provides evidence of red and/or green algal origins of 172 of the genes encoding these proteins (ca. 25% of the examined phylogenies), with...