Vesiduction: the fourth way of HGT.

: Besides the canonical gene transfer mechanisms transformation, transduction and conjugation, DNA transfer involving extracellular vesicles is still under appreciated. However, this widespread phenomenon has been observed in the three domains of life. Here, we propose the term 'Vesiduction' as a fourth mode of intercellular DNA transfer. All known forms of life evolve mainly thanks to recombination, allowing gene duplication, gene acquisition, domain shuffling, and gene deletion. In Bacteria and Archaea, genome evolution via recombination with foreign DNA requires horizontal gene transfer (HGT). More importantly, HGT confers the ability for a given cell to acquire virtually any DNA sequence independently of its origin, giving rise to genetic exchanges between cells belonging to different genera, different phyla, or even sometimes different domains. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.