Importance of horizontal gene transfer in prokaryotes

• Grant number: 12/50415-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctoral
• Start date: October 01, 2012
• End date: September 30, 2015
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Genetics - Molecular Genetics and Genetics of Microorganisms
• Principal Investigator: Carlos Frederico Martins Menck
• Grantee: Huma Asif
• Host Institution: Instituto de Ciências Biomédicas (ICB). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Horizontal gene transfer (HGT) is considered to be an innovative force in the genesis and evolution of species. Almost all functional gene categories are prone to HGT even rRNA operon. However, not all genes are observed as being transferred with equal frequency. Some clearly have higher tendency than others. Generally it is believed that operational genes (those involved in housekeeping) are more horizontally transferred than informational genes (those involved in transcription, translation and related processes). In this project, I plan to do detailed analysis of the HGT database previously generated in the lab. Genes and metabolic pathways observed in this database will be analyzed individually to check if the large scale in-silico approach did not present some artifacts, and for those that have more interesting histories, this will include the analysis of certain protein domain composition. The bacterial phyla with maximum HGT candidates will be shortlisted. Genes that are vertically transferred or those with little evidence for classification will be excluded. In the lab, previous investigation of different functional gene categories for HGT candidates had shown that categories of restriction / modification of DNA, transport and binding proteins, mobile genetic elements harbors maximum cases of HGT. Here I am planning to explore these categories (particularly transport and binding proteins category) in the evolutionary perspective. We hope to give a major contribution on the relevance of HGT in prokaryotic evolution. (AU)