Chinese Bulletin of Botany ›› 2016, Vol. 51 ›› Issue (4): 542-559.DOI: 10.11983/CBB15121

• SPECIAL TOPICS • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Horizontal Gene Transfer in Plants

Lei Shi1, Minghui Zhang1, 2, Yuchao Chen1, Lei Gong1, Xiaoyan Gan1, Li Zhang1, Fengjie Nie1, Yuxia Song1*   

  1. 1Key Laboratory of Agricultural Biotechnology of Ningxia,Yinchuan 750002, China
    2College of Life Sciences, Ningxia University, Yinchuan 750002, China
  • Received:2015-07-02 Accepted:2015-12-14 Online:2016-07-01 Published:2016-08-05
  • Contact: Song Yuxia
  • About author:

    # Co-first authors

Abstract: Horizontal gene transfer (HGT) is the transfer of genetic material between non-mating species. HGT plays an important role in evolution of bacterial and unicellular eukaryotes. However, the frequency and impact on the evolution of HGT among multicellular eukaryotes remains unclear. Recent studies indicate that several HGT events occured between plants and even between plants and other organisms. This review focuses on some HGT events that were found in plants, to try to explain the potential mechanisms and the importance of HGT in plants.