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Horizontal gene transfer drives extreme physiological change in Haloarchaea

The haloarchaea are aerobic, heterotrophic, photophosphorylating prokaryotes, whose supposed closest relatives and ancestors, the methanogens, are CO2-reducing, anaerobic chemolithotrophs. Using two available haloarchaeal genomes we firstly confirmed the methanogenic ancestry of the group and then investigated those individual genes in the haloarchaea that differ in their phylogenetic signal to this relationship. We found that almost half the genes, about which we can make strong statements, have bacterial ancestry and are likely a result of multiple horizontal transfer events. Futhermore their functions specifically relate to the phenotypic changes required for a chemolithotroph to become a heterotroph. If this phylogenetic relationship is correct, it implies the development of the haloarchaeal phenotype was among the most extreme changes in cellular physiology fuelled by horizontal gene transfer.