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Defining the Mobilome

  • Protocol
Horizontal Gene Transfer

Part of the book series: Methods in Molecular Biology ((MIMB,volume 532))

Abstract

This chapter defines the agents that provide for the movement of genetic material which fuels the adaptive potential of life on our planet. The chapter has been structured to be broadly comprehensive, arbitrarily categorizing the mobilome into four classes: (1) transposons, (2) plasmids, (3) bacteriophage, and (4) self-splicing molecular parasites.

Our increasing understanding of the mobilome is as dynamic as the mobilome itself. With continuing discovery, it is clear that nature has not confined these genomic agents of change to neat categories, but rather the classification categories overlap and intertwine. Massive sequencing efforts and their published analyses are continuing to refine our understanding of the extent of the mobilome. This chapter provides a framework to describe our current understanding of the mobilome and a foundation on which appreciation of its impact on genome evolution can be understood.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Statistics, Rice University, Houston, TX, USA

    Janet L. Siefert

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  1. Janet L. Siefert
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Connecticut, 968 Warrenville Road, Mansfield Center, CT 06250, USA

    Maria Boekels Gogarten

  2. Dept. Molecular & Cell Biology, University of Connecticut, 91 North Eagleville Rd., Storrs, CT 06269-3125, USA

    Johann Peter Gogarten

  3. Biology Department, St. Lawrence University, 23 Romoda Drive, Canton, NY 13617, USA

    Lorraine C. Olendzenski

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© 2009 Humana Press, a part of Springer Science+Business Media, LLC

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Siefert, J.L. (2009). Defining the Mobilome. In: Gogarten, M.B., Gogarten, J.P., Olendzenski, L.C. (eds) Horizontal Gene Transfer. Methods in Molecular Biology, vol 532. Humana Press. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-60327-853-9_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-60327-853-9_2

  • Publisher Name: Humana Press

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-60327-852-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-60327-853-9

  • eBook Packages: Springer Protocols

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