Horizontal gene transfer

Horizontal gene transfer is the movement of genetic material between organisms by routes other than parent-to-offspring inheritance. It can rapidly spread genes across lineages, including between species.

Transformation (genetics): The uptake and incorporation of free DNA from the environment by a cell. This route lets competent bacteria acquire DNA released by other cells.
Antibiotic resistance: The ability of microbes to survive exposure to drugs that would otherwise inhibit or kill them. Resistance genes can spread rapidly between bacterial lineages through horizontal transfer.
Antibiotic resistance gene: A gene whose product enables an organism to withstand an antimicrobial drug. Transferred resistance genes can give recipient bacteria an immediate survival advantage.
Tree of life: A representation of evolutionary relationships among organisms as a branching history. Horizontal transfers blur the clean branching pattern implied by a universal tree.
Bacterial conjugation: The transfer of DNA between cells through direct contact, often mediated by a plasmid. Conjugation moves plasmids between living cells, including across some species boundaries.
Extended-spectrum beta-lactamase: An enzyme that inactivates many penicillin and cephalosporin antibiotics. Genes for these enzymes often travel on plasmids between bacteria.
Pathogenicity island: A genomic region acquired by horizontal transfer that carries genes contributing to pathogenicity. These transferred regions can turn otherwise harmless bacteria into disease-causing strains.
Last universal common ancestor: The most recent ancestral population shared by all organisms living today. Extensive early gene exchange complicates estimates of this ancestor's genes and biology.
Transduction (genetics): The transfer of bacterial DNA from one cell to another by a virus. Bacteriophages can package host DNA and carry it into another bacterium.
CRISPR-Cas immunity: An adaptive defense system in bacteria and archaea that targets genetic material from invading elements. Its evolutionary history reflects repeated encounters with mobile DNA and viruses.

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