With more eukaryotic genomes available for study researchers have been able to identify a growing number of horizontal gene transfer (HGT) candidates. We compiled 9,511 protein coding genes that were identified as horizontally transferred in the published literature. This dataset contains gene transfers from bacteria, fungi, archaea and protists to metazoans. We assigned a level of certainty to each gene based on the methods used in the scientific paper reporting HGT. A supplemental file contains all the coding sequences and protein sequences for the HGT genes. This dataset can be used to identify trends in genome and protein evolution and provide a foundation for creating a centralized HGT database for eukaryotes.
