Raw red alga of the genus Porphyra is part of a traditionalJapanese diet. This alga is rich in porphyran, a polysaccharide that human digestive enzymes cannot break down. Marine bacteria that live on the alga produce a porphyran-digesting enzyme. In Japan, a homologousenzyme is common in one species of intestinal bacteria. Outside of Japan, people have the same species of intestinal bacteria, but they do not have the gene for the porphyran-digesting enzyme. The marine bacteria andthe intestinal bacteria are not close relatives, so they mostlikely did not inherit the enzyme from a shared ancestor.Propose a scenario to explain the observed distributionof the enzyme.

Biology Today and Tomorrow without Physiology (MindTap Course List)
5th Edition
ISBN:9781305117396
Author:Cecie Starr, Christine Evers, Lisa Starr
Publisher:Cecie Starr, Christine Evers, Lisa Starr
Chapter4: Energy And Metabolism
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Raw red alga of the genus Porphyra is part of a traditional
Japanese diet. This alga is rich in porphyran, a polysaccharide that human digestive enzymes cannot break down. Marine bacteria that live on the alga produce a porphyran-digesting enzyme. In Japan, a homologous
enzyme is common in one species of intestinal bacteria. Outside of Japan, people have the same species of intestinal bacteria, but they do not have the gene for the porphyran-digesting enzyme. The marine bacteria and
the intestinal bacteria are not close relatives, so they most
likely did not inherit the enzyme from a shared ancestor.
Propose a scenario to explain the observed distribution
of the enzyme.

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