Talking about old proteins....and DNA organization

Consider bacteria which are, in theory, immortal 


Do they age? [good review article].  


Now there is evidence that as bacteria divide [news report here, and original paper here], the two daughters are not equivalent, one is molecularly younger than the other (can suggest how this is possible before reading the papers?)  

Also, I thought I would remind you of the problem associated with putting ~ 5 million base pairs of DNA into a single bacterial cell.  


In this picture, the bacterial cell (the dark blob in the center) has been opened up to allow its DNA to escape (the thin strands around the cell).  


Pretty amazing, so you can imagine the issues associated with finding a gene in this mess.  


Here is a nice overview article, if you are so inclined.