Gene Swap Key To Evolution

[Moontanman]

Gene swap key to evolution

Horizontal gene transfer accounts for the majority of prokaryotic protein evolution

 

By Megan Scudellari

 

 

 

 

Microbes evolve predominantly by acquiring genes from other microbes, new research suggests, challenging previous theories that gene duplication is the primary driver of protein evolution in prokaryotes.

 

Scanning electron micrograph of Helicobacter pylori

Janice Carr, Wikimedia

 

The finding, published today (January 27) in PLoS Genetics, could change the way scientists study and model biological networks and protein evolution.

 

"Even at a meeting last summer, there were those that thought that bacteria genomes expanded mostly through duplications and others that argued that it was due to gene acquisition," wrote Howard Ochman, an evolutionary biologist at Yale University who was not involved in the research, in an Email to The Scientist. "Now we all have a paper to point to that does a very good job of answering this question," he said. "Their conclusions are really robust."

 

 

Read more: Gene swap key to evolution - The Scientist - Magazine of the Life Sciences http://www.the-scientist.com/news/display/57962/#ixzz1E2n0Ho9B