Skip to main content
Journal cover image

Looking for Darwin's footprints in the microbial world.

Publication ,  Journal Article
Shapiro, BJ; David, LA; Friedman, J; Alm, EJ
Published in: Trends Microbiol
May 2009

As we observe the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin's birth, microbiologists interested in the application of Darwin's ideas to the microscopic world have a lot to celebrate: an emerging picture of the (mostly microbial) Tree of Life at ever-increasing resolution, an understanding of horizontal gene transfer as a driving force in the evolution of microbes, and thousands of complete genome sequences to help formulate and refine our theories. At the same time, quantitative models of the microevolutionary processes shaping microbial populations remain just out of reach, a point that is perhaps most dramatically illustrated by the lack of consensus on how (or even whether) to define bacterial species. Here, we summarize progress and prospects in bacterial population genetics, with an emphasis on detecting the footprint of positive Darwinian selection in microbial genomes.

Duke Scholars

Altmetric Attention Stats
Dimensions Citation Stats

Published In

Trends Microbiol

DOI

EISSN

1878-4380

Publication Date

May 2009

Volume

17

Issue

5

Start / End Page

196 / 204

Location

England

Related Subject Headings

  • Selection, Genetic
  • Microbiology
  • Genome, Bacterial
  • Evolution, Molecular
  • DNA, Bacterial
  • Bacteria
  • 3107 Microbiology
  • 3101 Biochemistry and cell biology
  • 1108 Medical Microbiology
  • 0605 Microbiology
 

Citation

APA
Chicago
ICMJE
MLA
NLM
Shapiro, B. J., David, L. A., Friedman, J., & Alm, E. J. (2009). Looking for Darwin's footprints in the microbial world. Trends Microbiol, 17(5), 196–204. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tim.2009.02.002
Shapiro, B Jesse, Lawrence A. David, Jonathan Friedman, and Eric J. Alm. “Looking for Darwin's footprints in the microbial world.Trends Microbiol 17, no. 5 (May 2009): 196–204. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tim.2009.02.002.
Shapiro BJ, David LA, Friedman J, Alm EJ. Looking for Darwin's footprints in the microbial world. Trends Microbiol. 2009 May;17(5):196–204.
Shapiro, B. Jesse, et al. “Looking for Darwin's footprints in the microbial world.Trends Microbiol, vol. 17, no. 5, May 2009, pp. 196–204. Pubmed, doi:10.1016/j.tim.2009.02.002.
Shapiro BJ, David LA, Friedman J, Alm EJ. Looking for Darwin's footprints in the microbial world. Trends Microbiol. 2009 May;17(5):196–204.
Journal cover image

Published In

Trends Microbiol

DOI

EISSN

1878-4380

Publication Date

May 2009

Volume

17

Issue

5

Start / End Page

196 / 204

Location

England

Related Subject Headings

  • Selection, Genetic
  • Microbiology
  • Genome, Bacterial
  • Evolution, Molecular
  • DNA, Bacterial
  • Bacteria
  • 3107 Microbiology
  • 3101 Biochemistry and cell biology
  • 1108 Medical Microbiology
  • 0605 Microbiology