title: The nature of the universal ancestor and the evolution of the proteome.
abstract: The past year has seen several attempts to reconstruct the proteome of the universal ancestor of all life on the basis of comparisons of contempory genomes. However, increasing evidence for lateral gene transfer could mean that such attempts are based on an incorrect understanding of evolution.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Canadian Institute for Advanced Research, Dalhousie University, Halifax, B3H 4H7, Canada. ford@is.dal.ca
authors.forename: W F
authors.initials: WF
authors.lastname: Doolittle
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D006801:Humans; D020543:Proteome
chemical_list: D020543:Proteome