MicrobeWorld

The quote from the lead researcher in this story is very intriguing and definitely makes me want to read the paper - ""Scientists have been studying E. coli genes for many, many years and we thought we knew pretty much all there was to know - we certainly didn't expect to find any more genes that are essential for survival! "Finding out that these genes are essential in E. coli and also appear in the genomes of other species tells us that they are very important indeed. In the case of one of the genes it is also found in the human genome, which makes it especially interesting. The mystery remains as to what they actually do, but whatever it is, it must be really crucial."