TY - JOUR
T1 - Mechanisms of gene flow in archaea
AU - Wagner, Alexander
AU - Whitaker, Rachel J.
AU - Krause, David J.
AU - Heilers, Jan Hendrik
AU - Van Wolferen, Marleen
AU - Van Der Does, Chris
AU - Albers, Sonja Verena
N1 - Funding Information:
R.J.W. and D.J.K. acknowledge funding support from the US National Science Foundaion (NSF; grant DEB #1355171) and NASA Exobiology and Evolutionary Biology (grant NNX09AM92G). A.W., M.v.W. and J.H. were supported by a European Research Council (ERC) starting grant (grant ARCHAELLUM, 311523). J.H. received further support from the CRC746 (DFG).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 Macmillan Publishers Limited, part of Springer Nature. All rights reserved.
PY - 2017/8/1
Y1 - 2017/8/1
N2 - Archaea are diverse, ecologically important, single-celled microorganisms. They have unique functions and features, such as methanogenesis and the composition of their cell envelope, although many characteristics are shared with the other domains of life, either through ancestry or through promiscuous horizontal gene transfer. The exchange of genetic material is a major driving force for genome evolution across the tree of life and has a role in archaeal speciation, adaptation and maintenance of diversity. In this Review, we discuss our current knowledge of archaeal mechanisms of DNA transfer and highlight the role of gene transfer in archaeal evolution.
AB - Archaea are diverse, ecologically important, single-celled microorganisms. They have unique functions and features, such as methanogenesis and the composition of their cell envelope, although many characteristics are shared with the other domains of life, either through ancestry or through promiscuous horizontal gene transfer. The exchange of genetic material is a major driving force for genome evolution across the tree of life and has a role in archaeal speciation, adaptation and maintenance of diversity. In this Review, we discuss our current knowledge of archaeal mechanisms of DNA transfer and highlight the role of gene transfer in archaeal evolution.
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U2 - 10.1038/nrmicro.2017.41
DO - 10.1038/nrmicro.2017.41
M3 - Review article
C2 - 28502981
AN - SCOPUS:85023647176
SN - 1740-1526
VL - 15
SP - 492
EP - 501
JO - Nature Reviews Microbiology
JF - Nature Reviews Microbiology
IS - 8
ER -