Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2009 Dec;19(6):613-9.
doi: 10.1016/j.gde.2009.10.001. Epub 2009 Nov 10.

Functional and ecological impacts of horizontal gene transfer in eukaryotes

Patrick J Keeling  1
Affiliations
Review

Functional and ecological impacts of horizontal gene transfer in eukaryotes

Patrick J Keeling. Curr Opin Genet Dev. 2009 Dec.

Abstract

Horizontal gene transfer (HGT) is known to have contributed to the content of eukaryotic genomes, but the direct effects of HGT on eukaryotic evolution are more obscure because many of the best supported cases involve a new gene replacing a functionally similar homologue. Here, several cases of HGT conferring a plausible adaptive advantage are reviewed to examine emerging trends in such transfer events. In particular, HGT seems to play an important role in adaptation to parasitism and pathogenesis, as well as to other specific environmental conditions such as anaerobiosis or nitrogen and iron limitation in marine environments. Most, but not all, of the functionally significant HGT to eukaryotes comes from bacteria, in part due to chance, but probably also because bacteria have greater metabolic diversity to offer.

PubMed Disclaimer

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources