by Merry — Men­tion hor­i­zon­tal gene trans­fer (HGT) in bac­te­ria, and what comes to mind is the ac­qui­si­tion of new traits and ca­pa­bil­i­ties across large evo­lu­tion­ary dis­tances. Not so for the neis­se­riae. For them, HGT is a means to swap genes with other mem­bers of the species and to main­tain...