Alien genes in bacteria
Lateral gene transfer can cause phylogenetic conflict but may not be the only mechanism
Aug 7, 2003
Evidence for lateral gene transfer (LGT) contradicted earlier theories that bacteria evolve clonally, with daughters only inheriting genetic material from mothers. LGT is extensive and has played a major role in microbial evolution, and indeed genes may be transferred from phylogenetically quite distantly related organisms, making the construction of a meaningful phylogenetic tree difficult. In the August 8
Daubin et al. analyzed quartets of related sequenced genomes whose phylogenetic relationship is known based upon small subunit ribosomal RNA sequence. They inferred the number of genes...