Promotional Information

Up-to-the-minute reviews, maps, conclusions, urls to relevant websites and colour figures.
Unique chapters, for example one written by paleontologists presents data for horizontal gene transfer from fingerprints form the fossil record.

Table of Contents

Section I Plasmids and Transfer Mechanisms in Bacteria1. Recent History of Trans-kingdom Conjugation2. Gene Cassettes and Integrons: Moving Single Genes3. A Corynebacterium Plasmid Composed of Elements from Throughout the Eubacteria Kingdom4. Horizontal Transfer of Naphthalene Catabolic Genes in a Toxic Waste Site5. Horizontal Transmission of Genes by Agrobacterium Species6. Horizontal Transfer of Proteins Between Species: Part of the Big Picture or Just aGenetic Vignette?7. Transformation in Aquatic Environments8. Pseudolysogeny: A Bacteriophage Strategy for Increasing Longevity In Situ

Section II Mosaic Genes and Chromosomes9. The Dynamics of Bacterial Genomes10. Bacterial Pathogenicity Islands and Infectious Diseases11. Mosaic Proteins, Not Reinventing the Wheel12. Evolutionary Relationships Among Diverse Bacteriophages and Prophages: All The World’s a Phage13. Horizontal Gene Transfer in Bacteriophages14. Horizontal Transfer of Mismatch Repair Genes and the Variable Speed of Bacterial Evolution

Section III Eukaryotic Mobile Elements15. Evidence for Horizontal Transfer of P Transposable Elements16. The mariner Transposons of Animals: Horizontally Jumping Genes17. The Splicing of Transposable Elements: Evolution of a Nuclear Defense Against Genomic Invaders?

Section IV Transfer Mechanisms Involving Plants and Microbes18. Gene Transfer Through Introgressive Hybridization: History, Evolutionary Significance, and Phylogenetic Consequences19. Gene Flow and Introgression from Domesticated Plants into their Wild Relatives20. Search for Horizontal Gene Transfer from Transgenic Crops to Microbes21. Gene Transfer in the Fungal Host–Parasite System Absidia glauca–Parasitella parasitica Depends on Infection22. Automatic Eukaryotic Artificial Chromosomes: Possible Creation of Bacterial Organelles in Yeast23. Bacteria as Gene Delivery Vectors for Mammalian Cells

V Whole Genome Comparisons: The Emergence of the Eukaryotic Cell24. Gene Transfers Between Distantly Related Organisms25. Horizontal Gene Transfer and its Role in the Evolution of Prokaryotes26. Horizontal Gene Transfer and the Universal Tree of Life27. Endosymbiotic Gene Transfer: A Special Case of Horizontal Gene Transfer Germane to Endosymbiosis, the Origins of Organelles and the Origins of Eukaryotes28. Dating the Age of the Last Common Ancestor of All Living Organisms with a Protein Clock

Section VI Parallelisms and Macroevolutionary Trends29. Character Parallelism and Reticulation in the Origin of Angiosperms30. Temporal Patterns of Plant and Metazoan Evolution Suggest Extensive Polyphyly31. Graptolite Parallel Evolution and Lateral Gene Transfer32. Larval Transfer in Evolution33. Macroevolution, Catastrophe and Horizontal Transfer34. Horizontal Gene Transfer: A New Taxonomic Principle?

Reviews

"I fully recommend purchase of this book as it sketches out future research areas that are only now gaining prominence." -ASM NEWS (2003) "...an impressive compilation of almost every aspect of this explosive field. ...I applaud the editors for bringing together this outstanding group of authors to express their views and back it with logic, inference and strong data." -William Firshein, Wesleyan University (2002)