title: Horizontal gene transfer depends on gene content of the host.
abstract: Horizontal gene transfer is a major contributor to the evolution of bacterial genomes. We examine this process through a combination of comparative genomics and in silico analysis of the Escherichia coli metabolic network. We validate our horizontal transfer estimates by confirming the predicted gradual amelioration of GC content over time. We find that the chance of acquiring a gene by horizontal transfer is up to six times higher if an enzyme that catalyses a coupled metabolite flux is already encoded in the host genome.
authors.affiliation: European Molecular Biology Laboratory, Heidelberg, Germany.
authors.forename: Csaba
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Pál
authors.forename: Balázs
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Papp
authors.forename: Martin J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Lercher
mesh_terms: D001482:Base Composition / Q000235:genetics*; D002874:Chromosome Mapping / Q000379:methods*; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000502:physiology*; D029968:Escherichia coli Proteins / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism*; D022761:Gene Transfer, Horizontal / Q000235:genetics*; D014644:Genetic Variation / Q000235:genetics; D016680:Genome, Bacterial / Q000235:genetics; D015398:Signal Transduction / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D029968:Escherichia coli Proteins