Leveraging comparative genomics to uncover alien genes in bacterial genomes

A significant challenge in bacterial genomics is to catalogue genes acquired through the evolutionary process of horizontal gene transfer (HGT). Both comparative genomics and sequence composition-based methods have often been invoked to quantify horizontally acquired genes in bacterial genomes. Comparative genomics methods rely on completely sequenced genomes and therefore the confidence in their predictions increases as the databases become more enriched in completely sequenced genomes. Recent developments including in microbial genome sequencing call for reassessment of alien genes based on information-rich resources currently available. We revisited the comparative genomics approach and developed a new algorithm for alien gene detection. Our algorithm compared favourably with the existing comparative genomics-based methods and is capable of detecting both recent and ancient transfers. It can be used as a standalone tool or in concert with other complementary algorithms for comprehensively cataloguing alien genes in bacterial genomes.