Each of 3,323 metabolic innovations in the evolution of <i>E. coli</i> arose through the horizontal transfer of a single DNA segment

DOI Web Site Web Site 1 Citations
  • Tin Yau Pang
    Institute for Computer Science, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, 40225 Düsseldorf, Germany;
  • Martin J. Lercher
    Institute for Computer Science, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, 40225 Düsseldorf, Germany;

Abstract

<jats:title>Significance</jats:title> <jats:p> Bacteria often evolve by copying genes from other strains, a process termed horizontal gene transfer. As a consequence, different strains of the bacterial species <jats:italic>Escherichia coli</jats:italic> differ substantially in the sets of genes they possess. Here, we use the inferred gene sets of all recent ancestors of 53 <jats:italic>E. coli</jats:italic> strains to reconstruct the ancestors’ abilities to grow in different nutritional environments. This allows us to infer over 3,000 metabolic innovations in <jats:italic>E. coli</jats:italic> ’s evolutionary history. All innovations arose through the copying (transfer) of only one small piece of DNA from another strain, demonstrating an amazing capacity of <jats:italic>E. coli</jats:italic> to quickly adapt to new environments. </jats:p>

Journal

Citations (1)*help

See more

Report a problem

Back to top