DNA passed to and from all kinds of organisms, even across kingdoms, has helped shape the tree of life, to a large and undisputed degree in microbes and also unexpectedly in multicellular fungi, ...

In a recent study published in Cell, researchers used a multi-omics approach to profile the gut microbiomes and metabolomes of mothers and infants to determine the vertical and horizontal transmission ...

Biomedical engineers at Duke University have demonstrated a microbial community phenomenon that essentially equates to teaching neighbors how to complete necessary tasks by ripping out and sharing ...

When the human genome was first published, the suggestion that it contained bacterial genes was controversial. Subsequent studies questioned the possibility of HGT, offering alternate explanations for ...

A new study has shown that virus-like transposons, called Mavericks, are responsible for horizontal gene transfer (HGT) in nematodes. Researchers led by Alejandro Burga at the Austrian Academy of ...

Grass may transfer genes from their neighbors in the same way genetically modified crops are made, a new study has revealed. Grass may transfer genes from their neighbours in the same way genetically ...

The movement of genetic material between organisms that aren’t directly related is a significant driver of evolution, especially among single-celled organisms like bacteria and archaea. A team led by ...

An introner jumped between this species, a glass sponge, and an unrelated species of marine protist called a dinoflagellate. Image courtesy of the NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research, ...

Arpita Bose and Zhecheng Zhang explore genetic tools in environmental microbes, citing applications in extracellular electron transfer ...

New research shows that one fruit fly species contains whole genomes of a kind of bacteria, making this finding the largest bacteria-to-animal transfer of genetic material ever discovered. The new ...