title: Origin and evolution of operons and metabolic pathways.
abstract: The emergence and evolution of metabolic pathways represented a crucial step in molecular and cellular evolution, allowing primitive organisms to become less dependent on exogenous sources of organic compounds. This work will review the main theories accounting for their assembly and for the origin and evolution of prokaryotic operons.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Microbial and Molecular Evolution, Department of Evolutionary Biology, Via Romana 17-19, University of Florence, 50125 Florence, Italy. marco.fondi@unifi.it
authors.forename: Marco
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Fondi
authors.forename: Giovanni
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Emiliani
authors.forename: Renato
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Fani
mesh_terms: D001419:Bacteria / Q000235:genetics*; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D053858:Metabolic Networks and Pathways / Q000235:genetics*; D008954:Models, Biological; D009876:Operon