Comparison between E. coli and Human Genomes

by Nanci Cook

Submitted : Fall 2010

According to Aravind and Koonin 1999, the study of bacteria genomes has increased the basic understanding of genetic control to include the DNA proteins.  It is with this knowledge that the similiarities between the human genome and E. coli genome must exist.  With that said, a comparison between the two genomes was performed with a sequence comparison program known as BLASTn.   With the comparison of the two genomes, it will be easier to determine if the two genomes are descendants from a common ancestor is why they are so capable of being used in similar experiments.  To demonstrate how E. coli has evolved over time another comparison was done between different E. coli strands.  The Smith-Waterman equation which is used by the BLASTn program is broken down to show how the program has come up with the results of the sequence comparison. 

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