Origins of bacterial diversity through horizontal genetic transfer and adaptation to new ecological niches

Horizontal genetic transfer (HGT) has played an important role in bacterial evolution at least since the origins of the bacterial divisions, and HGT still facilitates the origins of bacterial diversity, including diversity based on antibiotic resistance. Adaptive HGT is aided by unique features of genetic exchange in bacteria such as the promiscuity of genetic exchange and the shortness of segments transferred. Genetic exchange rates are limited by the genetic and ecological similarity of organisms. Adaptive transfer of genes is limited to those that can be transferred as a functional unit, provide a niche-transcending adaptation, and are compatible with the architecture and physiology of other organisms.…

• NA
  National Aeronautics and Space Administration
• CS
  Connecticut Space Grant College Consortium
• HU
  Harvard University