With other UNSW and US colleagues, Professor Cavicchioli compared the genomes of two common ocean bacteria that employ different strategies for living: one lives in nutrient-rich waters and is fast to grow and replicate itself, and another lives in poor-nutrient waters, and grows more slowly. The findings are published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The comparison revealed genetic differences that reflect the different lifestyles of the two species: the bacteria from the nutrient-rich waters have many selective transporter proteins to quickly absorb plentiful nutrients while those from nutrient-poor waters have a smaller number of highly efficient transporter proteins to extract what little nutrition is available.
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