title: Metabolic bacterial genes and the construction of high-level composite lineages of life.
abstract: Understanding how major organismal lineages originated is fundamental for understanding processes by which life evolved. Major evolutionary transitions, like eukaryogenesis, merging genetic material from distantly related organisms, are rare events, hence difficult ones to explain causally. If most archaeal lineages emerged after massive acquisitions of bacterial genes, a rule however arises: metabolic bacterial genes contributed to all major evolutionary transitions.
authors.affiliation: UMR7138 Evolution Paris-Seine, Institut de Biologie Paris-Seine, Université Pierre et Marie Curie, 9 quai saint Bernard, 75005 Paris, France.
authors.forename: Raphaël
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Méheust
authors.affiliation: UMR7138 Evolution Paris-Seine, Institut de Biologie Paris-Seine, Université Pierre et Marie Curie, 9 quai saint Bernard, 75005 Paris, France.
authors.forename: Philippe
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Lopez
authors.affiliation: UMR7138 Evolution Paris-Seine, Institut de Biologie Paris-Seine, Université Pierre et Marie Curie, 9 quai saint Bernard, 75005 Paris, France. Electronic address: eric.bapteste@snv.jussieu.fr.
authors.forename: Eric
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Bapteste
mesh_terms: D001105:Archaea / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics*; D001419:Bacteria / Q000235:genetics*; D019605:Euryarchaeota / Q000235:genetics*; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D022761:Gene Transfer, Horizontal / Q000235:genetics*; D019766:Genes, Archaeal / Q000235:genetics*; D005798:Genes, Bacterial / Q000235:genetics*
keywords: eukaryogenesis; evolutionary transition; lateral gene transfer; prokaryotic evolution; tree of life; web of life