lateraldetect
Lateraldetect is a computational framework for identifying lateral gene transfer events in genomes. It combines signals from phylogenetic incongruence, nucleotide composition shifts, and synteny disruption to detect regions that may have originated outside the host lineage. Developed for microbial genomics, lateraldetect outputs a ranked list of candidate loci with accompanying confidence scores and explanatory features.
The workflow uses annotated genomes, gene families, and a reference species tree as input. It infers gene
Development and availability: Lateraldetect originated as an open-source project in the late 2010s, with ongoing community
Applications and impact: The tool is used to study the role of lateral gene transfer in microbial
Limitations and considerations: Lateraldetect relies on the quality and sampling of input genomes. False positives can