Does Life Evolve Like a Great Branchi By Helen Wong 王思齊 “There is grandeur in this view of life … from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved.” Charles Darwin the Origin of Species [1] Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection explains how life evolves through inherited changes passed from one generation to the next. When it comes to inheritance, we often think of genes being passed down vertically from parents to offspring. This pattern, known as “vertical gene transfer,” has long been considered the main way genetic information moves through populations. However, it is not the only way: Genes can also move horizontally between unrelated organisms in a process called “horizontal gene transfer” (HGT). Once thought to be rare, HGT is now known to occur across nearly all branches of life and plays a key role in how life adapts in fast and sometimes surprising ways [2–3]. HGT in Prokaryotes While the term HGT might be new to you, chances are you have already heard of one of its consequences: antibiotic resistance in pathogenic bacteria. This is one of the most famous examples in action.
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