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Molecular evolution in bacteria

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Abstract

Recent advances in microbiology and molecular biology have a unifying influence on our understanding of genetic diversity/similarity and evolutionary relationships in microorganisms. This article attempts to unify information from diverse areas such as microbiology, molecular biology, microbial physiology, clay crystal genes, metals-microbe-clay interactions and bacterial DNA restriction-modification systems (R-M) as they may apply to molecular evolution of bacteria. The possibility is discussed that the first informational molecules may have been catalytic RNA (micro-assembler) not DNA (now the master copy) and these first micro-assemblers may have been precursors of ribosomes.

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Trevors, J.T. Molecular evolution in bacteria. Antonie van Leeuwenhoek 67, 315–324 (1995). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00872929

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