Lighting the way: how the Vibrio fischeri model microbe reveals the complexity of Earth’s “simplest” life forms

Abstract

Life is thought to have evolved in the ocean before expanding to terrestrial habitats. It is no wonder then that marine bacteria share genes, physiology, functional pathways, and regulatory mechanisms with their terrestrial cousins. These pathways and processes represent deeply rooted, conserved strategies that have evolved over billions of years and adapted to new habitats as the Earth and its increasingly diverse host species changed over time.