Pleiotropic costs of niche expansion in the RNA bacteriophage phi 6.

ABSTRACT: Natural and experimental systems have failed to universally demonstrate a trade-off between generalism and specialism. When a trade-off does occur it is difficult to attribute its cause to antagonistic pleiotropy without dissecting the genetic basis of adaptation, and few previous experiments provide these genetic data. Here we investigate the evolution of expanded host range (generalism) in the RNA virus phi6, an experimental model system allowing adaptive mutations to be readily identified. We isolated 10 spontaneous host range mutants on each of three novel Pseudomonas hosts and determined whether these mutations imposed fitness costs on the standard laboratory host. Sequencing revealed that each mutant had one of nine nonsynonymous mutations in the phi6 gene P3, important in host attac

SUBMITTER: Duffy S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1456241 | biostudies-literature | 2006 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature