Absolutely. E.coli is defined as a species by several criteria, one is the inability to digest citrate. Recently in the lab E.coli evolved the ability to digest citrate and is now a new species; citrate plus e.coli.
Nylon digesting bacteria lives entirely differently and upon an entirely different food source than its ancestral bacteria. It is known, as a species, by its ability to digest nylon.
How does the “apparent” evolution of bacteria compare with the reproductive life cycle of mammals? It is comparable once you account for generation time (20 minutes versus 20 years). In fact the 2% genetic difference and 6% genomic difference between humans and chimps is estimated to have taken some six to seven million years to accumulate, while one could generate a 6% genomic difference in bacteria quite rapidly, especially if you put them under stress and as part of their stress response they increased their mutation rate.
Now why again would a bacteria under stress want to increase its mutation rate?
Another poster suggested it gave them a survival advantage to do so and then let the subject drop. I wonder why.
Isn’t it obvious? The increased mutation rate in response to stress is front loaded.
:)
Interesting! I was aware of the engineered (e.g. lab created) strain of e.coli that was being investigated for alternative fuels research, but was not aware that "citrus e.coli" had arisen naturally, and that it was anything other than e.coli. Could you please provide a reference?
While numerous strains of e.coli have been observed, but they are still identifiable as e.coli. Are there examples of e.coli "evolving" into something other that e.coli, and not other strains of e.coli?