Life 2014, 4(2), 217-224; doi:10.3390/life4020217
Review
Horizontal Gene Transfer among Bacteria and Its Role in Biological Evolution
Biozentrum, University of Basel, Klingelbergstr. 50/70, CH-4056 Basel, Switzerland
Received: 19 February 2014 / Revised: 22 April 2014 / Accepted: 23 April 2014 / Published: 16 May 2014
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Horizontal Gene Transfer and the Last Universal Common Ancestor)
Abstract
This is a contribution to the history of scientific advance in the past 70 years concerning the identification of genetic information, its molecular structure, the identification of its functions and the molecular mechanisms of its evolution. Particular attention is thereby given to horizontal gene transfer among microorganisms, as well as to biosafety considerations with regard to beneficial applications of acquired scientific knowledge.
Keywords: microbial genetics; gene vectors; recombinant DNA molecules; genetic variation; gene acquisition; evolution genes; natural selection; microbiome; gene domestication; laws of nature
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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