Definition
Horizontal gene transfer (HGT) describes the biological phenomenon by which an organism acquires genes from organisms belonging to other species, genera, or taxa. Its name reflects the fact that the transfer of genetic information between organisms that are not necessarily related is different from the “vertical” transmission of genes from parent to offsprings. Early reports (Smith et al. 1992) interpreted HGT as a rare event, unable to significantly influence the global composition of target genomes. This first impression was rapidly subverted by the advent of genomic sequencing technologies. For example, the comparison of the genomes of Escherichia coli and Haemophilus influenzae, two bacteria belonging to the same evolutionary lineage, shows a significant difference in their gene content (Tatusov et al. 1996). This difference, which is not at all justifiable only in terms of vertical descent, gave a first indication of the massive role played by HGT in the evolution of...
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Grassi, L., Grilli, J., Cosentino Lagomarsino, M. (2014). Metagenomic Potential for Understanding Horizontal Gene Transfer. In: Nelson, K. (eds) Encyclopedia of Metagenomics. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6418-1_704-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6418-1_704-4
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