LATP UMR-CNRS 7353, Evolution Biologique et Modélisation, Aix-Marseille Universitée Marseille, France.
Front Cell Infect Microbiol. 2012 Apr 11;2:50. doi: 10.3389/fcimb.2012.00050. eCollection 2012.
The increase in huge number of genomic sequences in recent years has contributed to various genetic events such as horizontal gene transfer (HGT), gene duplication and hybridization of species. Among them HGT has played an important role in the genome evolution and was believed to occur only in Bacterial and Archaeal genomes. As a result, genomes were found to be chimeric and the evolution of life was represented in different forms such as forests, networks and species evolution was described more like a rhizome, rather than a tree. However, in the last few years, HGT has also been evidenced in other group such as metazoa (for example in root-knot nematodes, bdelloid rotifers and mammals). In addition to HGT, other genetic events such as transfer by retrotransposons and hybridization between more closely related lineages are also well established. Therefore, in the light of such genetic events, whether the evolution of metazoa exists in the form of a tree, network or rhizome is highly questionable and needs to be determined. In the current review, we will focus on the role of HGT, retrotransposons and hybridization in the metazoan evolution.
近年来，大量基因组序列的增加促成了各种遗传事件，如水平基因转移（HGT）、基因复制和物种杂交。其中，HGT 在基因组进化中发挥了重要作用，并且被认为仅发生在细菌和古菌基因组中。因此，发现基因组是嵌合体的，生命的进化以不同的形式表现出来，如森林、网络，而物种进化更像是根茎，而不是树。然而，在过去的几年中，HGT 也在其他群体中得到了证实，如后生动物（例如在根结线虫、蛭形轮虫和哺乳动物中）。除了 HGT，其他遗传事件，如逆转录转座子的转移和更密切相关谱系之间的杂交，也已经得到很好的证实。因此，鉴于这些遗传事件，后生动物的进化是否以树、网络或根茎的形式存在是非常值得怀疑的，需要确定。在本次综述中，我们将重点关注 HGT、逆转录转座子和杂交在后生动物进化中的作用。
