Abstract
BackgroundHorizontal gene transfer (HGT) is the stable transmission of genetic material between organisms by means other than vertical inheritance. HGT has an important role in the evolution of prokaryotes but is relatively rare in eukaryotes. HGT has been shown to contribute to virulence in eukaryotic pathogens. We studied the importance of HGT in plant pathogenic fungi by identifying horizontally transferred genes in the genomes of three members of the genus Colletotrichum.ResultsWe identified eleven HGT events from bacteria into members of the genus Colletotrichum or their ancestors. The HGT events include genes involved in amino acid, lipid and sugar metabolism as well as lytic enzymes. Additionally, the putative minimal dates of transference were calculated using a time calibrated phylogenetic tree. This analysis reveals a constant flux of genes from bacteria to fungi throughout the evolution of subphylum Pezizomycotina.ConclusionsGenes that are typically transferred by HGT are those that are constantly subject to gene duplication and gene loss. The functions of some of these genes suggest roles in niche adaptation and virulence. We found no evidence of a burst of HGT events coinciding with major geological events. In contrast, HGT appears to be a constant, albeit rare phenomenon in the Pezizomycotina, occurring at a steady rate during their evolution.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/1471-2164-16-2) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
Highlights
Horizontal gene transfer (HGT) is the stable transmission of genetic material between organisms by means other than vertical inheritance
[30], C. higginsianum IMI 349063 [30] and C. gloeosporioides Cg-14 [32]), we developed a pipeline that consists of a series of Basic Local Alignment Search Tool (BLAST) searches and automated filtering designed to reduce the number of unlikely HGT candidates, followed by manual evaluation of phylogenetic trees (Additional file 1: Figure S1)
The BLAST searches and tree evaluations were performed serially rather than in parallel to minimize the number of manual phylogenetic tree evaluations required (Additional file 1: Figure S1)
Summary
Horizontal gene transfer (HGT) is the stable transmission of genetic material between organisms by means other than vertical inheritance. Horizontal gene transfer (HGT, called lateral gene transfer) is the stable transmission of genetic material between organisms without the use of vertical inheritance mechanisms, mitosis or meiosis [1]. Transposons and viruses are candidate vectors of HGT These elements have the potential to transfer genetic material among distantly related species but only in a few cases is there strong evidence to support this type of transfer [1]. Another mechanism is phagocytosis, the “you are what you eat” hypothesis which proposes that the predator–prey relationship could increase the chances of an HGT event in microorganisms [18]. Beyond the vectors needed to achieve HGT, the ecological association of fungi with living and dead organisms may increase the chance of transmitting genetic material laterally [19,20,21]
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