Event Details

Lateral gene transfer throughout the grass family

There is increasing evidence that lateral gene transfer (LGT) is a prevalent evolutionary force in certain groups of eukaryotes. Among plants, we have shown that LGT spreads functional genes in certain grasses. Initially, we sequenced the genome of the grass Alloteropsis semialata and identified 59 genes that were laterally from at least 9 different donors. We have now expanded our LGT scans to other model grasses including many widely grown crops. Our results show that LGT is widespread in the family, and can spread genes with diverse functions including photosynthesis, soil adaptation and disease resistance. Overall, our results demonstrate that LGT among certain eukaryotes can be significant, representing a recurrent source of material for adaptive diversification.