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Science 30 May 2008:
Vol. 320. no. 5880, pp. 1210 - 1213
DOI: 10.1126/science.1156407
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Reports

Massive Horizontal Gene Transfer in Bdelloid Rotifers

Eugene A. Gladyshev,1 Matthew Meselson,1,2* Irina R. Arkhipova1,2*

Horizontal gene transfer in metazoans has been documented in only a few species and is usually associated with endosymbiosis or parasitism. By contrast, in bdelloid rotifers we found many genes that appear to have originated in bacteria, fungi, and plants, concentrated in telomeric regions along with diverse mobile genetic elements. Bdelloid proximal gene-rich regions, however, appeared to lack foreign genes, thereby resembling those of model metazoan organisms. Some of the foreign genes were defective, whereas others were intact and transcribed; some of the latter contained functional spliceosomal introns. One such gene, apparently of bacterial origin, was overexpressed in Escherichia coli and yielded an active enzyme. The capture and functional assimilation of exogenous genes may represent an important force in bdelloid evolution.

1 Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA.
2 Josephine Bay Paul Center for Comparative Molecular Biology and Evolution, Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, MA 02543, USA.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: msm{at}wjh.harvard.edu (M.M.); iarkhipova{at}mbl.edu (I.R.A.)

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THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
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Degenerate Tetraploidy Was Established Before Bdelloid Rotifer Families Diverged.
J. H. Hur, K. Van Doninck, M. L. Mandigo, and M. Meselson (2009)
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From the Cover: Repeated horizontal transfer of a DNA transposon in mammals and other tetrapods.
J. K. Pace II, C. Gilbert, M. S. Clark, and C. Feschotte (2008)
PNAS 105, 17023-17028
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