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Updated: Aug 15, 2026

Methodology for the Study of Horizontal Gene Transfer in Staphylococcus aureus
Published on: March 10, 2017
Horizontal gene transfer depends on gene content of the host
Csaba Pál1, Balázs Papp, Martin J Lercher
1European Molecular Biology Laboratory, Heidelberg, Germany.
Abstract:
Horizontal gene transfer is a major contributor to the evolution of bacterial genomes. We examine this process through a combination of comparative genomics and in silico analysis of the Escherichia coli metabolic network. We validate our horizontal transfer estimates by confirming the predicted gradual amelioration of GC content over time. We find that the chance of acquiring a gene by horizontal transfer is up to six times higher if an enzyme that catalyses a coupled metabolite flux is already encoded in the host genome.
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