Fig. 6

Signatures of phylogroup-core genome in the ancestral evolution of E. coli phylogroups. The gained/lost genes are indicated with red and blue boxes, using the phylogeny described in this work. Moreover, the thickness on the red/blue branches indicates the magnitude of gain/loss. The superscripts correspond to gained/lost genes in different trajectories indicating possible events in ecological adaptation. This representation could help to understand the different events of ecological adaptation. Phylogroup D was used as reference genome, as the number of available sequences of the E. coli recent ancestor was very low. ⁽¹⁾ CreBC and bglGFBH operons; ⁽²⁾ dinJ-yafQ; ⁽³⁾ HlyD. A complete list of gained or lost genes are described in additional file 8