Continuing on the theme that bacteria are Nature’s smallest circus, I want to highlight the most glaring problem with our knowledge of these 2000 ring circuses. We have discussed how proteins encoded by genes within a microbe’s genome often work together to carry out their function, i.e. pathways (or rings). To date, according to the NCBI genome site 4019 bacterial genomes have been sequenced to the point that we know the number of genes and proteins each organism contains. Moreover, this equates to 7,309,205 genes total or roughly 1818 genes per genome. These are astonishing numbers. To show our futility as experts of all things natural, over 30% of these genes are considered hypothetical or uncharacterized. In some genomes, these genes make up 60% of the total genes. These terms are a technical way of saying “hell if we know what they do”. Computers have recognized them as genes or open reading frames, however, the gene itself isn’t similar enough to known or characterized genes for scientists or computers to call it “the same”. If these gene products (proteins) functions are unknown, they cannot be assigned to a ring in the circus therefore making the largest ring by far in any bacterial circus the “unknown” ring.

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