I'd thought/assumed that antibiotic-resistance would've involved the gaining of a useful gene (to be expressed as a new/additional protein), either by point-mutation/s in its own genome, or by picking-up & incorporating a gene from the local environment (e.g., perhaps one released by a...
Do you mean something like lumbering quadrupeds having gone back into the ocean to become the cetacea (whales, etc.), and having lost their bodyweight-supporting legs in the process?
Maybe by "horizontal evolution" he actually means a change of proteome (i.e., expressing different genes) in response to an environmental change?
Adaptation can be seen either as a change in proteome (esp. in response to a short-term environmental change), or as a change in genome over a longer...
"Becoming simpler" is not what's actually observed in the fossil record (e.g., the suture lines of Ammonites having become more intricate/complex over time); neither is it what's actually observed microbially, as microbes have a definite tendency to acquire & incorporate/store-up genetic info...
Point #1 is correct to the extent that no living organism of any kind whatsoever could rationally have arisen from the presumed primordial soup without there having already been an immense amount of prebiotic chemical development (esp. oligomeric permutative & conformational exploration) having...
437 genes still represents a lot of nucleobases (i.e., many more than 437). Paring-back an organism's genome to 'bare-bones' is an interesting approach/result, but it's really just robbing the organism of proteomic potential (i.e., of having a wealth of genomic info in reserve, gathered over...