G C A T T A C G G C A T genes Review Horizontal Transfer of Symbiosis Genes within and Between Rhizobial Genera: Occurrence and Importance Mitchell Andrews 1,*, Sofie De Meyer 2,3 ID , Euan K. James 4 ID , Tomasz St˛epkowski 5, Simon Hodge 1 ID , Marcelo F. Simon 6 ID and J. Peter W. Young 7 ID 1 Faculty of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Lincoln University, P.O. Box 84, Lincoln 7647, New Zealand;
[email protected] 2 Centre for Rhizobium Studies, Murdoch University, Murdoch 6150, Australia;
[email protected] 3 Laboratory of Microbiology, Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology, Ghent University, 9000 Ghent, Belgium 4 James Hutton Institute, Invergowrie, Dundee DD2 5DA, UK;
[email protected] 5 Autonomous Department of Microbial Biology, Faculty of Agriculture and Biology, Warsaw University of Life Sciences (SGGW), 02-776 Warsaw, Poland;
[email protected] 6 Embrapa Genetic Resources and Biotechnology, Brasilia DF 70770-917, Brazil;
[email protected] 7 Department of Biology, University of York, York YO10 5DD, UK;
[email protected] * Correspondence:
[email protected]; Tel.: +64-3-423-0692 Received: 6 May 2018; Accepted: 21 June 2018; Published: 27 June 2018 Abstract: Rhizobial symbiosis genes are often carried on symbiotic islands or plasmids that can be transferred (horizontal transfer) between different bacterial species. Symbiosis genes involved in horizontal transfer have different phylogenies with respect to the core genome of their ‘host’. Here, the literature on legume–rhizobium symbioses in field soils was reviewed, and cases of phylogenetic incongruence between rhizobium core and symbiosis genes were collated.