Highlights•Phages drive horizontal gene transfer between prokaryotes.•Lysogenic
conversion provides novel adaptive traits, at the cost of eventual lysis.•Prophages account …

In bacteria, recombination is a rare event, not a part of the reproductive process.
Nevertheless, recombination—broadly defined to include the acquisition of genes from …

Detecting patterns of horizontal gene transfer (HGT) in genomic sequences is an important
problem, with implications for evolution, ecology, biotechnology and medicine. Extensive …

Horizontal gene transfer (HGT) plays an important role in bacterial evolution. It is well
accepted that DNA is pulled/pushed into recipient cells by conserved membrane-associated …

Eukaryotes use meiotic recombination to blend parental genomes and generate genome‐
wide variation between progeny. By contrast, bacteria divide asexually to generate two …

Bacterial adaptation is accelerated by the acquisition of novel traits through horizontal gene
transfer, but the integration of these genes affects genome organization. We found that …

Horizontal gene transfer is the collective name for processes that permit the exchange of
DNA among organisms of different species. Only recently has it been recognized as a …

Unlike eukaryotes, which evolve principally through the modification of existing genetic
information, bacteria have obtained a significant proportion of their genetic diversity through …

Horizontal DNA transfer (HDT) is a pervasive mechanism of diversification in many microbial
species, but its primary evolutionary role remains controversial. Much recent research has …

Horizontal genetic transfer (HGT) has played an important role in bacterial evolution at least
since the origins of the bacterial divisions, and HGT still facilitates the origins of bacterial …