Expansion of the protein repertoire in newly explored environments: human gut microbiome specific protein families.

ABSTRACT: The microbes that inhabit particular environments must be able to perform molecular functions that provide them with a competitive advantage to thrive in those environments. As most molecular functions are performed by proteins and are conserved between related proteins, we can expect that organisms successful in a given environmental niche would contain protein families that are specific for functions that are important in that environment. For instance, the human gut is rich in polysaccharides from the diet or secreted by the host, and is dominated by Bacteroides, whose genomes contain highly expanded repertoire of protein families involved in carbohydrate metabolism. To identify other protein families that are specific to this environment, we investigated the distribution of protein fam

SUBMITTER: Ellrott K 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2880560 | biostudies-literature | 2010 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature