Imagine that you've sequenced the genome of a human pathogenic bacterium. In the early stages of ...

Imagine that you've sequenced the genome of a human pathogenic bacterium. In the early stages of analysis, you discover a stretch of DNA that has a significantly different GC content (the proportion of bases that are G and C). Further examination of this region shows there are roughly one dozen protein-coding regions. These are not found in the genome of a previously sequenced and related bacterium. These sequences do, however, predict protein products strikingly similar to those of another bacterial pathogen that is not closely related to the organism you're studying. You immediately suspect
A) convergent evolution.
B) that the DNA sequence analysis is in error.
C) a high rate of mutation.
D) a low rate of mutation.
E) lateral gene transfer.