Escherichia sp. Genome sequencing and assembly

Recently, five distinct clades of Escherichia have been recovered from the aquatic environments, and they are believed to be environmentally adapted. We collected more than 4000 strains from the various environment of Hong Kong and isolated 17 environmentally adapted E. coli isolates from marine sediment. We will try to find how these strains have evolved and whether they are ecologically different from E. coli sensus stricto. These findings will expand our understanding of the ecology and the role of genetic traits, recombination, horizontal gene transfer and natural selection on the adaptation of E. coli population to different niches. Genomes sequenced using the Ion Torrent technology.