Escherichia Coli: From Genome Sequences to Consequences (or “Ceci n’est pas un éléphant…”)
Mark Pallen, MA MBBS MD PhD FRCPath
Mark Pallen, School of Medicine, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, United Kingdom;
Correspondence and reprints: Dr Mark Pallen, School of Medicine, University of Birmingham, Room ELG41, Division of Immunity and Infection, Birmingham B15 2TT, United Kingdom. Telephone 0121-414-7163, fax 0121-414-3454, e-mail m.pallen@bham.ac.uk
Abstract
The present article summarizes a presentation given by Professor Mark Pallen of the School of Medicine at the University of Birmingham (Birmingham, United Kingdom) for the Fourth Stanier Lecture held in Regina, Saskatchewan, on November 9, 2004. Professor Pallen’s lecture, entitled ‘Escherichia coli: From genome sequences to consequences’, provides a summary of the important discoveries of his team of research scientists in the area of genetic sequencing and variations in phenotypic expression.
Key Words: Comparative genomics, Darwin, Genetic sequencing, Genomics, Phenotypic expression, Proteomics, Stanier
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EXCERPT FROM THE CONCLUSION/EXCERTO DA CONCLUSÃO
Darwin Versus Monod In The Postgenomic Era
One of Roger Stanier’s final publications, in 1977, was the obituary of the Nobel laureate Jacques Monod (8). A few years earlier, in December 1972, long before the genomic era, Monod made a memorable Delphic utterance, “Tout ce qui est vrai pour le Colibacille est vrai pour l’éléphant” (9), which translates roughly into English as “All that is true for E coli, is true for the elephant”. By contrast, in the postgenomic era, our bioinformatics and laboratory-based studies lead us to conclude that what is true of one strain of E coli is not even true of another strain from within the same species!
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EXCERPT FROM THE CONCLUSION/EXCERTO DA CONCLUSÃO
One of Roger Stanier’s final publications, in 1977, was the obituary of the Nobel laureate Jacques Monod (8). A few years earlier, in December 1972, long before the genomic era, Monod made a memorable Delphic utterance, “Tout ce qui est vrai pour le Colibacille est vrai pour l’éléphant” (9), which translates roughly into English as “All that is true for E coli, is true for the elephant”. By contrast, in the postgenomic era, our bioinformatics and laboratory-based studies lead us to conclude that what is true of one strain of E coli is not even true of another strain from within the same species!
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