Price et al. [(1999). J. Bacteriol. 181:2358–2362] conducted a genetic study of the toxin transport protein (PA) of Bacillus anthracis, the bacterium that causes anthrax in humans. Within the 2294-nucleotide gene in 26 strains they identified five point mutations—two missense and three synonyms—among different isolates. Necropsy samples from an anthrax outbreak in 1979 revealed a novel missense mutation and five unique nucleotide changes among ten victims. The authors concluded that these data indicate little or no horizontal transfer between different B. anthracis strains.

What is meant by 'horizontal transfer'?

Video transcript

Hello everyone and welcome to today's video. So today we have that which of the following statements regarding horizontal transfer is incorrect. And remember that when we refer to horizontal transfer, we refer to horizontal gene transfer, which is a type of just transferring genetic information between two organisms which can be the same or different species. Let's begin by going over answer choice. A this can occur through the exchange of genetic material between two organisms of the same species or between two organisms of different species. This is correct. So we're going to cancel it out. Then we have it can introduce new genetic material into a population which can lead to increased genetic diversity and the potential for adaptation to new environments. Well, since we're transferring genes between two individuals, if one individual can provide new jeans, then we're introducing new genetic material into the population. That is a correct answer choice. So we're going to cancel it out. Remember that we're looking for the incorrect statement regarding horizontal gene transfer only. We have seen we have positive traits like antibiotic resistance can spread between organisms through horizontal transfer. But remember that this antibiotic resistance trait is going to be an advantage that is being provided to these organisms like bacteria. So these positive traits could definitely be spread through horizontal gene transfer and provide an advantage to organisms that obtain them. This is correct as well. So we're going to cancel it out and then we have horizontal transfer is the process by which genetic material is transferred from parent to offspring. And this is key to this answer choice. So the reason why it's called horizontal transfer is because it is transferred horizontally, it is transferred between people of the same generation. So individual one, an individual to our being a transferring genetic information within the same generation, this transfer between a parent and an offspring that occurs between one generation and the other is called vertical genes transfer. So since this is not going to be horizontal gene transfer, this is going to be your incorrect statement and we're going to highlight it as a final answer to our question. I really hope this helped you and I hope to see you on the next one.