Discussion

Genomes are composed of long strings of nucleotide monomers (A, C, G, and T) that are either scavenged from the organism's environment or built from metabolic precursors. In this talk I will discuss how adaptation to different metabolic strategies is a major determinant of the differences in genome composition between parasites, using examples from kinetoplastids and parasitic bacteria. I will also discuss how diet impacts on codon bias and discuss novel mathematical models we have developed that provide new insight into the relationship between diet, environment, gene expression and the nucleotide sequence of a gene.