Tapestry of Life: Lateral Transfers of Heritable Elements
Organized by Siv Andersson, Jonathan Eisen, Claire Fraser, and Jeffrey Gordon
Co-Chairs: Claire Fraser and Jeffrey Gordon
December 12-13, 2005
Irvine, CA
Meeting Overview:
The Sackler Colloquium The Tapestry of Life: Lateral Transfers of Heritable Elements was held on December 12-13, 2005. What Darwin saw as a tree of life descending in a linear fashion, is now more accurately seen as a tapestry of life, an anastomosing network, with important lateral transfers of heritable elements among parallel lines of descent. These transfers range in complexity from small insertion sequences, to whole genes, gene islands, and portions of whole genomes which may be combined in symbiogenesis. The colloquium brought together researchers, empirical and theoretical, working at all levels on genomics, comparative genomics, and metagenomics to identify common and differentiating features of lateral gene transfer and to examine their implications for science and for human concerns.
Video Available
Jeffrey Gordon, Washington University School of Medicine Opening Remarks
Session I: Mechanisms and Experimental Studies of LGT
Abigail Salyers, University of Illinois, Chair Global Phage Diversity and the Movement of Genes
Forest Rohwer, San Diego State University
Prochlorococcus Diversity: How to Dominate the Oceans with 2000 Genes
Penny Chisholm, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
LGT in the Human Colon: How Much and How Important?
Abigail Salyers, University of Illinois
Molecular Machinery for Lateral Transfer of Introns
Marlene Belfort, Wadsworth Center, NYS Department of Health
Poster Abstract Presentation: Natural Transformation as a Source of Diversity Among Vibrio Cholerae Isolates
Michael Miller, Stanford University
Session II: Methods of Detection Measuring Non-Random LGT Among Bacterial Lineages
Jeffrey Lawrence, University of Pittsburgh, Chair
Are Horizontal Gene Transfers the Most Disturbing Limitation for Inferring Prokaryotic Phylogeny?
Herve Philippe, University of Montreal
Genome Conservation and the Net of Life
Christos Ouzounis, European Bioinformatics Institute
The Ring of Life and the Origin of Eukaryotes
James Lake, University of California, Los Angeles
Poster Abstract Presentation: Parametric Bootstrap Analyses of Bacterial 16SrRNA Mosaicism
Kaiyuan Shi, University of Connecticut
Session III: Case Studies
Siv Andersson, University of Uppsala, Chair
Plant Mitochondrial Genomes: Unexpected Bounties of Lateral Gene Transfer
Jeffrey Palmer, Indiana University
Enterococcal Pheromone-Responsive Plasmids: Broad-Host Range Transfer Controlled by Narrow-Host Range Cell-Cell Signaling
Gary Dunny, University of Minnesota
Impact of Lateral Gene Transfer on the Eukaryotic Nuclear Genome
Patrick Keeling, University of British Columbia
Alpha-Proteobacterial Gene Transfers and the Origin of Mitochondria
Siv Andersson, University of Uppsala
Poster Abstract Presentation: Intracellular Gene Transfer in Endosymbiotic Genome Integration
Nicola Patron, University of British Columbia
Session IV: Evolutionary Implications of LGT Environmental Genomics and LGT: Can we Identify Organisms through their DNA if all Organisms are Chimeras?
Jonathan Eisen, The Institute for Genomic Research, Chair
Inferring Eukaryotic Divergences
Sandra Baldauf, University of York
How to Recover the History of the Archaeal Domain, despite Lateral Gene Transfer?
Patrick Forterre, University of Paris
"Web of Life"
Ford Doolittle, Dalhousie University
Poster Abstract Presentation: The Plastid Genome of the Haptophyte Emiliania Huxleyi and the Evolution of the Cholorphyll C Containing Plastids
M. Virginia Sanchez-Puerta, University of Maryland-College Park
Wrap Up: Impact, Applications, and Future Challenges Comparative Microbial Genomics: Insights Into Evolution and Organismal Diversity
Claire Fraser, The Institute for Genomic Research
