Seminar: Horizontal Gene Transfer in Eukaryotes: How Eating Changed Our Genomes

Abstract: Horizontal gene transfer (HGT) or lateral gene transfer (LGT), is the non-sexual movement of genetic information between genomes. It has played a pronounced role in bacterial and archaeal evolution, but its role in eukaryotes is less straightforward. Behaviours unique to eukaryotic cells, phagocytosis and endosymbiosis, have been proposed to increase the frequency of HGT, but nuclear genomes encode fewer HGTs than bacteria and archaea. To better align theory and data, eukaryotic HGT is reviewed in the context of eating and endosymbiosis to show that any increased chance of acquiring new genes through these processes is offset by a reduced need for foreign genes in eukaryotes because selection in most eukaryotes operates on variation not readily available through HGT.