Horizontal Gene Transfer

The second edition of Horizontal Gene Transfer has been organized to provide a concise and up-to-date coverage of the most important discoveries in this fascinating field. Written by the most prominent gene transfer and genome analytical scientists, this book details experimental evidence for the phenomenon of horizontal gene transfer and discusses further evidence provided by the recent completion of genomic sequences from Archea, Bacteria, and Eucarya members. The relevance of horizontal gene transfer to plant and metazoan taxonomy, GM foods, antibiotic resistance, paleontology, and phylogenetic reconstruction is also explored. Horizontal Gene Transfer is essential for microbiologists, geneticists, biochemists, evolutionary biologists, infectious disease specialists, paleontologists, ecologists, and researchers working in plant/animal systematics and agriculture with an interest in gene transfer. This includes scientific researchers from government and industry concerned with the release of genetically modified organisms.

Up-to-the-minute reviews, maps, conclusions, urls to relevant websites and colour figuresUnique chapters, for example one written by paleontologists presents data for horizontal gene transfer from fingerprints form the fossil record

Section I Plasmids and Transfer Mechanisms in Bacteria 1. Recent History of Trans-kingdom Conjugation 2. Gene Cassettes and Integrons: Moving Single Genes 3. A Corynebacterium Plasmid Composed of Elements from Throughout the Eubacteria Kingdom 4. Horizontal Transfer of Naphthalene Catabolic Genes in a Toxic Waste Site 5. Horizontal Transmission of Genes by Agrobacterium Species 6. Horizontal Transfer of Proteins Between Species: Part of the Big Picture or Just aGenetic Vignette? 7. Transformation in Aquatic Environments 8. Pseudolysogeny: A Bacteriophage Strategy for Increasing Longevity In Situ

Section II Mosaic Genes and Chromosomes 9. The Dynamics of Bacterial Genomes 10. Bacterial Pathogenicity Islands and Infectious Diseases 11. Mosaic Proteins, Not Reinventing the Wheel 12. Evolutionary Relationships Among Diverse Bacteriophages and Prophages: All The World’s a Phage 13. Horizontal Gene Transfer in Bacteriophages 14. Horizontal Transfer of Mismatch Repair Genes and the Variable Speed of Bacterial Evolution

Section III Eukaryotic Mobile Elements 15. Evidence for Horizontal Transfer of P Transposable Elements 16. The mariner Transposons of Animals: Horizontally Jumping Genes 17. The Splicing of Transposable Elements: Evolution of a Nuclear Defense Against Genomic Invaders?

Section IV Transfer Mechanisms Involving Plants and Microbes 18. Gene Transfer Through Introgressive Hybridization: History, Evolutionary Significance, and Phylogenetic Consequences 19. Gene Flow and Introgression from Domesticated Plants into their Wild Relatives 20. Search for Horizontal Gene Transfer from Transgenic Crops to Microbes 21. Gene Transfer in the Fungal Host–Parasite System Absidia glauca–Parasitella parasitica Depends on Infection 22. Automatic Eukaryotic Artificial Chromosomes: Possible Creation of Bacterial Organelles in Yeast 23. Bacteria as Gene Delivery Vectors for Mammalian Cells

V Whole Genome Comparisons: The Emergence of the Eukaryotic Cell 24. Gene Transfers Between Distantly Related Organisms 25. Horizontal Gene Transfer and its Role in the Evolution of Prokaryotes 26. Horizontal Gene Transfer and the Universal Tree of Life 27. Endosymbiotic Gene Transfer: A Special Case of Horizontal Gene Transfer Germane to Endosymbiosis, the Origins of Organelles and the Origins of Eukaryotes 28. Dating the Age of the Last Common Ancestor of All Living Organisms with a Protein Clock

Section VI Parallelisms and Macroevolutionary Trends 29. Character Parallelism and Reticulation in the Origin of Angiosperms 30. Temporal Patterns of Plant and Metazoan Evolution Suggest Extensive Polyphyly 31. Graptolite Parallel Evolution and Lateral Gene Transfer 32. Larval Transfer in Evolution 33. Macroevolution, Catastrophe and Horizontal Transfer 34. Horizontal Gene Transfer: A New Taxonomic Principle?