Horizontal gene transfer (HGT; also known as lateral gene transfer) has had an important
role in eukaryotic genome evolution, but its importance is often overshadowed by the greater …

Vibrios are ubiquitous and abundant in the aquatic environment. A high abundance of
vibrios is also detected in tissues and/or organs of various marine algae and animals, eg …

John Dupré explores recent revolutionary developments in biology and considers their
relevance for our understanding of human nature and human society. Epigenetics and …

Humans normally experience the conscious self as localized within their bodily borders. This
spatial unity may break down in certain neurological conditions such as out-of-body …

Genetic exchange is common among bacteria, but its effect on population diversity during
ecological differentiation remains controversial. A fundamental question is whether …

There is no widely accepted concept of species for prokaryotes, and assignment of isolates
to species is based on measures of phenotypic or genome similarity. The current methods …

To what extent is the tree of life the best representation of the evolutionary history of
microorganisms? Recent work has shown that, among sets of prokaryotic genomes in which …

Accumulating prokaryotic gene and genome sequences reveal that the exchange of genetic
information through both homology-dependent recombination and horizontal (lateral) gene …

The contribution of horizontal gene transfer to evolution has been controversial since it was
suggested to be a force driving evolution in the microbial world. In this paper, I review the …

A central goal in ecology is to understand the spatial scaling of biodiversity. Patterns in the
spatial distribution of organisms provide important clues about the underlying mechanisms …