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Published online on August 5, 2003, 10.1073/pnas.1632870100
PNAS | August 19, 2003 | vol. 100 | no. 17 | 9658-9662


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Horizontal gene transfer: A critical view

C. G. Kurland, B. Canback, and Otto G. Berg *

Department of Molecular Evolution, Evolutionary Biology Centre, University of Uppsala, S-75236 Uppsala, Sweden

Abstract

It has been suggested that horizontal gene transfer (HGT) is the "essence of phylogeny." In contrast, much data suggest that this is an exaggeration resulting in part from a reliance on inadequate methods to identify HGT events. In addition, the assumption that HGT is a ubiquitous influence throughout evolution is questionable. Instead, rampant global HGT is likely to have been relevant only to primitive genomes. In modern organisms we suggest that both the range and frequencies of HGT are constrained most often by selective barriers. As a consequence those HGT events that do occur most often have little influence on genome phylogeny. Although HGT does occur with important evolutionary consequences, classical Darwinian lineages seem to be the dominant mode of evolution for modern organisms.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: otto.berg{at}ebc.uu.se.


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