ABSTRACT
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Since the 1970s E. coli has been the standard biological vehicle for propagation of recombinant DNA, transgenic production of proteins and, via expression of recombinant enzymes, biological synthesis of small molecules. The natural utility of E. coli has benetted fundamental research and wider society, via the biotechnology industries, on a scale that is difcult to quantify. Despite this, E. coli did not evolve to assist human activity per se, beyond its commensal role in the mammalian gut, and most of the exploited properties of E. coli, such as rapid growth under laboratory conditions, have been derived from fortuitous evolutionary coincidence.
