Phylogenetic analyses do not support horizontal gene transfers from bacteria to vertebrates

Michael J. Stanhope (), Andrei Lupas, Michael J. Italia, Kristin K. Koretke, Craig Volker and James R. Brown ()
Additional contact information
Michael J. Stanhope: Bioinformatics, GlaxoSmithKline
Andrei Lupas: Bioinformatics, GlaxoSmithKline
Michael J. Italia: Bioinformatics, GlaxoSmithKline
Kristin K. Koretke: Bioinformatics, GlaxoSmithKline
Craig Volker: Bioinformatics, GlaxoSmithKline
James R. Brown: Bioinformatics, GlaxoSmithKline

Nature, 2001, vol. 411, issue 6840, 940-944

Abstract: Abstract Horizontal gene transfer (HGT) has long been recognized as a principal force in the evolution of genomes1. Genome sequences of Archaea and Bacteria have revealed the existence of genes whose similarity to loci in distantly related organisms is explained most parsimoniously by HGT events2,3,4. In most multicellular organisms, such genetic fixation can occur only in the germ line. Therefore, it is notable that the publication of the human genome reports 113 incidents of direct HGT between bacteria and vertebrates5, without any apparent occurrence in evolutionary intermediates, that is, non-vertebrate eukaryotes. Phylogenetic analysis arguably provides the most objective approach for determining the occurrence and directionality of HGT6,7. Here we report a phylogenetic analysis of 28 proposed HGT genes, whose presence in the human genome had been confirmed by polymerase chain reaction (PCR)5. The results indicate that most putative HGT genes are present in more anciently derived eukaryotes (many such sequences available in non-vertebrate EST databases) and can be explained in terms of descent through common ancestry. They are, therefore, unlikely to be examples of direct HGT from bacteria to vertebrates.

Date: 2001
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/35082058 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:nature:v:411:y:2001:i:6840:d:10.1038_35082058

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/

DOI: 10.1038/35082058

Access Statistics for this article

Nature is currently edited by Magdalena Skipper

More articles in Nature from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().