title: Lateral gene transfers and the origins of the eukaryote proteome: a view from microbial parasites.
abstract: Our knowledge of the extent and functional impact of lateral gene transfer (LGT) from prokaryotes to eukaryotes, outside of endosymbiosis, is still rather limited. Here we review the recent literature, focusing mainly on microbial parasites, indicating that LGT from diverse prokaryotes has played a significant role in the evolution of a number of lineages, and by extension throughout eukaryotic evolution. As might be expected, taxonomic biases for donor prokaryotes indicate that shared habitat is a major factor driving transfers. The LGTs identified predominantly affect enzymes from metabolic pathways, but over a third of LGT are genes for putative proteins of unknown function. Finally, we discuss the difficulties in analysing LGT among eukaryotes and suggest that high-throughput methodologies integrating different approaches are needed to achieve a more global understanding of the importance of LGT in eukaryotic evolution.
authors.affiliation: Institute for Cell and Molecular Biosciences, Faculty of Medical Sciences, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE2 4HH, UK. Electronic address: Robert.Hirt@ncl.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Robert P
authors.initials: RP
authors.lastname: Hirt
authors.affiliation: Division of Pharmacognosy, Department of Medicinal Chemistry, Uppsala University, Biomedical Center, S-751 23 Uppsala, Sweden; Department of Virology, Immunobiology and Parasitology, National Veterinary Institute, Uppsala, Sweden.
authors.forename: Cecilia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Alsmark
authors.affiliation: Institute for Cell and Molecular Biosciences, Faculty of Medical Sciences, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE2 4HH, UK.
authors.forename: T Martin
authors.initials: TM
authors.lastname: Embley
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D056890:Eukaryota / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000235:genetics*; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D022761:Gene Transfer, Horizontal; D006801:Humans; D011387:Prokaryotic Cells; D020543:Proteome / Q000032:analysis*
chemical_list: D020543:Proteome