Horizontal gene transfers and cell fusions in microbiology, immunology and oncology (Review)

Evolving young genomes of archaea, prokaryota and unicellular eukaryota were wide open for the acceptance of alien genomic sequences, which they often preserved and vertically transferred to their descendants throughout three billion years of evolution. Established complex large genomes, although seeded with ancestral retroelements, have come to regulate strictly their integrity. However, intruding retroelements, especially the descendents of Ty3/Gypsy, the chromoviruses, continue to find their ways into even the most established genomes. The simian and hominoid-Homo genomes preserved and accommodated a large number of endogenous retroviral genomic segments. These retroelements may mature into exogenous retroviruses, or into functional new genes. Phages and viruses have been instrumental in incorporating and transferring host cell genes. These events profoundly influenced and altered the course of evolution. Horizontal (lateral) gene transfers (HGT) overwhelmed the genomes of the ancient protocells and the evolving unicellular microorganisms, actually leading to their Cambrian explosion. While the rigidly organized genomes of multicellular organisms increasingly resist H/LGT, de-differentiated cells assuming the metabolism of their onto- or phylogenetic ancestors, open up widely to the practice of H/LGT by direct transfer, or to transfers mediated by viruses, or by cell fusions. This activity is intensified in malignantly transformed cells, thus rendering these subjects receptive to therapy with oncolytic viruses and with viral vectors of tumor-suppressive or immunogenic genetic materials. Naturally formed hybrids of dendritic and tumor cells are often tolerogenic, whereas laboratory products of these unisons may be immunogenic in the hosts of origin. As human breast cancer stem cells are induced by a treacherous class of CD8+ T cells to undergo epithelial to mesenchymal (ETM) transition and to yield to malignant transformation by the omnipresent proto-ocogenes (for example, the ras oncogenes), they become defenseless toward oncolytic viruses. Cell fusions and horizontal exchanges of genes are fundamental attributes and inherent characteristics of the living matter.