Lateral gene transfer in microbial evolution

Uri Gophna, Molecular Microbiology and Biotechnology, TAU

Lateral gene transfer (LGT) is a major force in microbial evolution, often driving bacterial genetic innovation and speciation. However, the long-term evolutionary impact of LGT is still under dispute. A few computational attempts to examine the effect of LGT on individual microbial genomes and global organismal phylogeny will be described, and the limitations of different methodologies will be discussed.