Journal or Publishing Institution: Molecular Microbiology
Study: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1046/j.1365-2958.2003.03808.x/abstract
Author(s): Koonin, E.V.
Article Type: Journal Publication
Record ID: 1276
Text: The realization that horizontal (lateral) gene transfer (HGT) might have had a major impact on biological evolution is perhaps the most fundamental change in our perception of general aspects of biology brought about by massive genome sequencing (Gogarten et al., 2002; Doolittle et al., 2003). As Lawrence and Hendrickson (2003) rightly point out in the MicroReview appearing in this issue, HGT might also be the most controversial topic in genomics. The main thesis of their review is that the study of HGT is still ‘in its adolescence’. They discuss four major questions that, in their reckoning, should be addressed for HGT to graduate to adulthood:
(i) How does HGT impact the evolutionary history of different genes? (ii) How does the role of HGT differ among different lineages? (iii) How does one reach robust conclusions on the presence or absence of HGT? (iV) How does one integrate HGT into the continuum of genetic exchange to arrive at meaningful microbiological concepts?
I really like the adolescence metaphor and agree that it is applicable to our current state of understanding of HGT. There are different kinds of adolescents, though, ranging from the insecure and neurotic, if bright and lovable, Holden Caulifieds of this world to precocious young stars busy preparing to take over. I believe that right now HGT science is more like the former, but, for it to become the latter, only one fundamental issue needs to be resolved: have there been enormous amounts of HGT throughout the evolution of life on earth or not?…
Citation: Koonin, E.V., 2003. Horizontal gene transfer: the path to maturity. Molecular Microbiology, 50(3), pp.725-727.
