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SO ENDS this two weekend sampling of horizontal gene flow. Evidence has accumulated that this gene mixing mechanism has played a vastly important role in the evolution of all life forms on earth, even those whose gene mixing strategies are largely vertical. Microorganisms, primarily bacteria and viruses, and mobile genetic elements, have played the driving role in horizontal and promiscuous gene sharing, driving evolution in previously unexpected ways. View in LinkedIn

PLASMIDS. "Conjugative plasmids encode proteins required for autonomous replication, whereas integrative and conjugative elements (ICEs, or conjugative transposons) typically replicate while integrated into the host chromosome but have the ability to excise and form plasmid-like molecules." https://lnkd.in/dSemZpD View in LinkedIn

FACT NOT THEORY. "Much like evolution itself, extensive HGT in the microbial world is a fact and not a ‘theory’. However, understanding the routes, causes, and consequences of horizontal gene flow as well as constructing the actual, quantitative theoretical framework of this pervasive process will keep many biologists busy for decades to come." (HGT = horizontal gene transfer). https://lnkd.in/dSemZpD View in LinkedIn

TRADITIONAL METHODS. "Bacterial and archaeal conjugation (prokaryotic sex) is a mechanism of genetic material transfer between microbial cells that combines features of selfish genetic elements and devices for gene transfer." https://lnkd.in/dSemZpD View in LinkedIn

EVOLVABLE AND ADAPTABLE? "Both theoretical models and tantalizing experimental clues suggest that HGT is essential for microbial survival and could be an evolvable, adaptive capacity mediated by dedicated vehicles originating from domesticated selfish elements. Yet this concept runs afoul of the distrust of ‘evolution of evolvability’ that is deeply ingrained among biologists." (HGT = horizontal gene transfer). https://lnkd.in/dSemZpD View in LinkedIn

DOMINANT PROCESS. "There is no reasonable doubt anymore that HGT is a dominant process in microbial evolution that generally occurs at a high rate. Moreover, the relevance of ‘horizontal’ as applied to gene flow is validated by the strong evidence of the existence of a central vertical, tree-like trend in genome evolution." (HGT = horizontal gene transfer). https://lnkd.in/dSemZpD View in LinkedIn

LAST BURST. "Thus, the acquisition of numerous genes from the proto-mitochondrion comes across as the last major burst of HGT (other than the acquisition of chloroplast genes at the base of the Archaeplastida), although numerous lineage-specific acquisitions of relatively small but biologically consequential groups of bacterial genes as well as eukaryote-to-eukaryote transfers undoubtedly occurred at later stages." (HGT = horizontal gene transfer). https://lnkd.in/dSemZpD View in LinkedIn

CURIOUSER AND CURIOUSER. "Acquisition of the mitochondria precipitated the series of dramatic changes in the organization of the chimeric cell which led to the curtailment of HGT." (HGT = horizontal gene transfer). https://lnkd.in/dSemZpD View in LinkedIn

FITS AND STARTS. "Eukaryotes acquired the majority of bacterial genes in the two major bursts associated with the origin of mitochondria and chloroplasts whereas subsequent, continuous acquisition of bacterial genes was limited in extent." https://lnkd.in/dSemZpD View in LinkedIn

GIANT GENE TRANSFERS. "In these special cases, the sources of the hundreds if not thousands of transferred genes were mitochondria and chloroplasts, respectively, i.e. bacterial endosymbionts on the path to becoming eukaryotic organelles." https://lnkd.in/dSemZpD View in LinkedIn