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Updated: Jun 23, 2026
09:47
Spotting Cheetahs: Identifying Individuals by Their Footprints
Published on: May 1, 2016
Looking for Darwin's footprints in the microbial world
B Jesse Shapiro1, Lawrence A David, Jonathan Friedman
1Program in Computational and Systems Biology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
Trends in Microbiology
|April 21, 2009
Summary
Microbial evolution is advancing with new genomic data and understanding of horizontal gene transfer. However, quantitative models for bacterial population genetics and species definition remain challenging, especially for detecting Darwinian selection.
Area of Science:
- Evolutionary Biology
- Microbial Genetics
- Genomics
Background:
- Celebrating Darwin's bicentennial, microbiology benefits from advances in the Tree of Life, horizontal gene transfer, and genome sequencing.
- Despite progress, quantitative models for microbial evolution and defining bacterial species are lacking.
- Detecting positive Darwinian selection in microbial genomes is a key challenge.
Purpose of the Study:
- To summarize progress in bacterial population genetics.
- To discuss prospects for understanding microbial evolution.
- To highlight methods for detecting positive Darwinian selection in microbial genomes.
Main Methods:
- Review of current research in bacterial population genetics.
- Analysis of genomic data to identify evolutionary patterns.
- Focus on detecting footprints of positive selection.
Main Results:
- Emerging high-resolution Tree of Life for microbes.
- Recognition of horizontal gene transfer as a major evolutionary driver.
- Availability of thousands of microbial genome sequences.
Conclusions:
- Significant advancements in understanding microbial evolution.
- Ongoing challenges in quantitative modeling and species definition.
- Future research directions in detecting Darwinian selection in microbes.
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