An international team of researchers from the United States, Korea, and France has sequenced and analyzed the genomes of two important laboratory strains of E. coli bacteria, one used to study evolution and the other to produce proteins for basic research or practical applications. The findings will help guide future research and will also open a window to a deeper understanding of classical research that is the foundation of our understanding of basic molecular biology and genetics.
The team, which includes two researchers from the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory, published its results online on October 17, 2009, in three papers in the Journal of Molecular Biology.
E. coli has been associated with recent outbreaks of food-borne illnesses, but the two most important laboratory types, named K-12 and B, were isolated from benign E. coli that are normal inhabitants of the human intestine. Both have been indispensable tools for biomedical research and biotechnology.
The team, which includes two researchers from the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory, published its results online on October 17, 2009, in three papers in the Journal of Molecular Biology.
E. coli has been associated with recent outbreaks of food-borne illnesses, but the two most important laboratory types, named K-12 and B, were isolated from benign E. coli that are normal inhabitants of the human intestine. Both have been indispensable tools for biomedical research and biotechnology.
