ArticleMolecular biology and evolution2012
Recurrent horizontal transfer of bacterial toxin genes to eukaryotes.
Article in Molecular biology and evolution, 2012. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 67 papers.
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Who cites it
67 citing papers in PubMed, 106 citations in OpenAlex.
- Cnidarian Venoms in the Omics Era: Toxin Discovery and Bioactive Potential.Marine drugs · 2026Review
- What impact do new homologs have on detecting interdomain horizontal gene transfer in eukaryotes? A reassessment of Katz (2015).Biology open · 2026Article
- Comparative analysis of 163 ant genomes reveals recurrent horizontal gene transfer from bacteria to ants.GigaScience · 2026Article
- The green lacewing venom system and the complex mechanisms underlying its evolution.Molecular biology and evolution · 2026Article
- Aerolysin-like proteins fromFrontiers in fungal biology · 2026Article
- Microbial Evolution and Systematics: Archaea and Bacteria.Progress in molecular and subcellular biology · 2026Review
- Evolutionary cell biology comes of age.Journal of cell science · 2025Article
- ThemBio · 2025Article
- The structural features and immunological role of biomphalysins in the snail Biomphalaria glabrata.PLoS pathogens · 2025Article
- Probing Bacterial Interactions with theToxins · 2025Article
- Horizontal Transfer of Bacterial Operons into Eukaryote Genomes.Genome biology and evolution · 2025Article
- Rampant Interkingdom Horizontal Gene Transfer in Pezizomycotina? An Updated Inspection of Anomalous Phylogenies.International journal of molecular sciences · 2025Article
- Article
- Phylogeny, envenomation syndrome, and membrane permeabilising venom produced by Australia's electric caterpillar Comana monomorpha.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Horizontal gene transfer underlies the painful stings of asp caterpillars (Lepidoptera: Megalopygidae).Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2023Article
- Lessons on fruiting body morphogenesis from genomes and transcriptomes ofStudies in mycology · 2023Article
- Evolution of insect innate immunity through domestication of bacterial toxins.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2023Article
- Dynamic genome evolution in a model fern.Nature plants · 2022Article
- The genome of an apodid holothuroid (Chiridota heheva) provides insights into its adaptation to a deep-sea reducing environment.Communications biology · 2022Article
- Distribution and Evolutionary History of Sialic Acid Catabolism in the PhylumMicrobiology spectrum · 2022Article
7 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
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Authors and funding
5 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
In this work, we report likely recurrent horizontal (lateral) gene transfer events of genes encoding pore-forming toxins of the aerolysin family between species belonging to different kingdoms of life. Clustering based on pairwise similarity and phylogenetic analysis revealed several distinct aerolysin sequence groups, each containing proteins from multiple kingdoms of life. These results strongly support at least six independent transfer events between distantly related phyla in the evolutionary history of one protein family and discount selective retention of ancestral genes as a plausible explanation for this patchy phylogenetic distribution. We discuss the possible roles of these proteins and show evidence for a convergent new function in two extant species. We hypothesize that certain gene families are more likely to be maintained following horizontal gene transfer from commensal or pathogenic organism to its host if they 1) can function alone; and 2) are immediately beneficial for the ecology of the organism, as in the case of pore-forming toxins which can be utilized in multicellular organisms for defense and predation.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.