Horizontal gene transfer: Implications in human health and diseases

Abstract

Horizontal gene transfer (HGT) between the different organisms of the same or different species can cause both beneficial and adverse biological consequences. HGT has been demonstrated among all the phylogenetic groups including human beings. There is rising evidence that prokaryotic HGT is a dominant evolutionary force. Integration of microbes with human beings and their interaction influences genetic, physiological, and biotic sustainability of host. In the present era, this mechanism in one end is used for constructing desired genome for gene therapy, and in other hand, it is decisive in progression and surfacing many human diseases because of rapid evolution of microorganism and resistant of these microorganism to the treated antibiotics. Transformation, transduction, and conjugation are the principal HGT mechanisms in prokaryote, whereas exosomes, apoptotic bodies, cell free DNA acts as mediators in eukaryotes. Conducive environment and diversified microbiome in human gut and their interaction with host facilitate HGT in gastrointestinal microbiome, which can modulate human health and diseases. Integration of viral and bacterial genome by HGT into human genomic DNA can lead to cancers such as human papillomavirus, acute myeloid leukemia, adenocarcinoma of stomach, and many more. Many metabolic, immunological, and neurodegenerative diseases are also emerging because of HGT. The development of resistance to antibiotics or multidrug in human beings are the consequences of HGT among microbiome and simultaneously clinicians therapeutic concern. Hence, the way of understanding different mediators of HGT and their integration may facilitate better diagnostic and therapeutic modalities in control of diseases.