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Integrating Horizontal Gene Transfer And Common Descent To Depict Evolution And Contrast It With ‘‘Common Design, Guillermo Paz-Y-Mino C., Avelina Espinosa
Integrating Horizontal Gene Transfer And Common Descent To Depict Evolution And Contrast It With ‘‘Common Design, Guillermo Paz-Y-Mino C., Avelina Espinosa
Arts & Sciences Faculty Publications
Horizontal gene transfer (HGT) and common descent interact in space and time. Because events of HGT co-occur with phylogenetic evolution, it is difficult to depict evolutionary patterns graphically. Tree-like representations of life’s diversification are useful, but they ignore the significance of HGT in evolutionary history, particularly of unicellular organisms, ancestors of multicellular life. Here we integrate the reticulated-tree model, ring of life, symbiogenesis whole-organism model, and eliminative pattern pluralism to represent evolution. Using Entamoeba histolytica alcohol dehydrogenase 2 (EhADH2), a bifunctional enzyme in the glycolytic pathway of amoeba, we illustrate how EhADH2 could be the product of both horizontally acquired …