Phylogenomics and Darwin's “Coral-of-Life” in Light of Horizontal Gene Transfer
Johann Peter Gogarten is a Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor of Molecular and Cell Biology and co-director of the Bioinformatics Facility at the University of Connecticut Biotechnology Services Center. His research on the early evolution of life and on horizontal gene transfer is funded through the NASA Exobiology and the National Science Foundation’s Assembling the Tree of Life programs. He is best known for rooting of the tree of life, and for his early recognition of horizontal gene transfer as an important force in microbial evolution. Currently the main focus of his research is comparative genomics and horizontal gene transfer. He is also interested in the early evolution of life and the evolution of molecular parasites.
Comparative genomics, which studies genomes across a variety of biological species and strains, has provided many new insights into microbial evolution. One of the surprises was the extent of horizontal gene transfer, which is the exchange of genetic information between organisms that do not share an ancestor-descendant relationship. In some respects horizontal gene transfer makes understanding life’s history more difficult, because phylogeny, or evolutionary history, can no longer be described as a single, steadily branching tree. A new framework is needed to study the evolutionary history of genomes. The study of horizontal gene transfer also reveals how new metabolic pathways are created. Additionally, in some instances transferred genes turned out to be excellent markers for classifying organisms with common ancestors.
The seminar will discuss and illustrate Darwin's proposal to rename the Tree-of Life into the Coral-of-Life, other metaphors for the evolution of life, the role of gene transfer from now extinct lineages, and the application of population genetic principles to higher, taxonomy classification units.
Article in UConn Today
Dr. Gogarten's Website
Related Publications
Andam CP, Williams D, Gogarten JP (2010)
Biased gene transfer mimics patterns created through shared ancestry.
Andam CP, Williams D, Gogarten JP (2010)
Natural Taxonomy in Light of Horizontal Gene Transfer.
Special Issue on the Tree of Life
Biology and Philosophy