Horizontal gene transfer (HGT) analysis in polyextremophile red algae (Cyanidiales) provides explanations for the nonexistence of cumulative effects and eukaryotic pangenomes, and highlights differences between HGT and native genes.

Cell cycle network evolution in a fungal ancestor was punctuated by the arrival of a viral DNA-binding protein that was permanently incorporated into the regulatory network controlling cell cycle entry.

For many bacterial species, recombination dominates genome evolution and phylogenetic patterns that have so far been assumed to reflect clonal relationships, in fact reflect variation in recombination rates across lineages.

The genome of Thermovibrio ammonificans encodes ancestral pathways (e.g., hydrogen oxidation) and more recently acquired ones (e.g., nitrate reduction) and a hybrid pathway for CO₂ fixation.

Lateral gene transfer is unable to resist mutation accumulation in large genomes, leading to selective pressure for the origin of meiotic sex in the first eukaryotes.

A DNA transposon, or ‘jumping gene’, controls its amplification within a genome through a competition between the enzyme multimers that are responsible for its mobility.

A number of microbial eukaryotes have adapted to low oxygen conditions by acquiring a gene that allows their mitochondrial electron transport chain to continue to function when oxygen is scarce.

Relatively few genes have evolved vertically from the last universal common ancestor to modern prokaryotes, and phylogenetic analysis of these genes demonstrates a great genetic distance between Archaea and Bacteria.

The common view that the mitochondrion endowed eukaryotes with a boost in bioenergetic capacity above that in prokaryotes is inconsistent with a diversity of cellular features.

Analysis of genomic DNA composition of surface plankton communities reveals a stable, ocean basin-scale plankton biogeography that emerges from the intertwined effects of environmental variations and currents.