title: Phylogeny of prokaryotes: does it exist and why should we care?
abstract: Understanding microbial evolution is essential for gathering information on the most ancient events in the history of Life on our planet. Nevertheless, the idea that it is impossible to reconstruct the evolutionary history of prokaryotes because of horizontal gene transfer has become very popular. We review this important debate and how it can be solved.
authors.affiliation: Institut Pasteur, Department of Microbiology, 75015 Paris, France. simonetta.gribaldo@pasteur.fr
authors.forename: Simonetta
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Gribaldo
authors.forename: Celine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Brochier
mesh_terms: D001105:Archaea / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics*; D001419:Bacteria / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics*; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D022761:Gene Transfer, Horizontal; D010802:Phylogeny; D011387:Prokaryotic Cells