Molecular Biology Of The Cell 6th Edition by Bruce Alberts, Alexander Johnson, Julian Lewis, David Morgan, Martin Raff, Keith Roberts, Peter Walter

Exercise 2

Which statements are true? explain why or why not.
-Genes participating in informational processes such as replication, transcription, and translation are transferred between species much less often than are genes involved in metabolism. The basis for this inequality is unclear at present, but one suggestion is that it relates to the underlying complexity of the two types of processes. Informational processes tend to involve large aggregates of different gene products, whereas metabolic reactions are usually catalyzed by enzymes composed of a single protein. Why would the complexity of the underlying pro- cess-informational or metabolic-have any effect on the rate of horizontal gene transfer?