Huang Jinling, Gogarten Johann Peter
Department of Biology, East Carolina University, Greenville, NC 27858, USA.
Trends Genet. 2006 Jul;22(7):361-6. doi: 10.1016/j.tig.2006.05.004. Epub 2006 May 30.
Although horizontal gene transfer (HGT) is usually considered a disruptive force in recovering organismal phylogeny, it creates important phylogenetic information. In the 'net of life', the recipient of an ancient gene transfer can be the ancestor of a lineage that inherits the transferred gene; thus, the transferred gene marks the recipient and its descendants as a monophyletic group. Ancient gene transfer events can also reveal the order of emergence of donor and recipient lineages. In addition, these ancient events can significantly shape the genetic systems of the recipients and can play a part in their long-term evolution. In this article, we discuss the recent progress in phylogenetic application of ancient HGTs and describe two examples of transfer events to the ancestor of red algae and green plants that support a common origin of these two groups. We also address the potential pitfalls of this application.
尽管水平基因转移（HGT）通常被认为是恢复生物系统发育的一种干扰力量，但它也创造了重要的系统发育信息。在“生命之网”中，一个古老基因转移的接受者可以是继承了转移基因的一个谱系的祖先；因此，转移的基因将接受者及其后代标记为一个单系类群。古老的基因转移事件还可以揭示供体和受体谱系出现的顺序。此外，这些古老事件可以显著塑造接受者的遗传系统，并在其长期进化中发挥作用。在本文中，我们讨论了古老HGT在系统发育应用方面的最新进展，并描述了两个转移事件的例子，这两个事件发生在红藻和绿色植物的祖先身上，支持了这两个类群的共同起源。我们还讨论了这种应用的潜在陷阱。
