Horizontal Gene Transfer Horizontal gene transfer is the transferring of a gene via infection by a bacteria or virus to another species. The bacteria or virus splices its DNA into that of its host. This is in contrast to vertical gene transfer, which is the transferring of a gene from parents to their offspring via reproduction. Researchers at Indiana University have found that Peperomia has picked up an I intron in its cox1 gene via horizontal gene transfer from a fungal donor. Group I introns are mobile DNA elements found in the organelles of plants.
Peperomia is a type of flowering plant called an angiosperm.
They have also found that 48 other angiosperms have acquired this cox1 gene via 32 different horizontal gene transfers. Next they separated the pieces using something called Southern Blotting Technique. Researchers of the department of genetics at the University of Georgia have also found that a horizontal gene transfer has occurred at the copia long terminal repeat retrotransposon between Drosphila melanogaster and Drosphila willistoni . D. melanogaster and D. willistoni are both types of fruit flies. Bacteria definitely undergoes horizontal gene transfer.