Trade-off between bile resistance and nutritional competence drives Escherichia coli diversification in the mouse gut.

ABSTRACT: Bacterial diversification is often observed, but underlying mechanisms are difficult to disentangle and remain generally unknown. Moreover, controlled diversification experiments in ecologically relevant environments are lacking. We studied bacterial diversification in the mammalian gut, one of the most complex bacterial environments, where usually hundreds of species and thousands of bacterial strains stably coexist. Herein we show rapid genetic diversification of an Escherichia coli strain upon colonisation of previously germ-free mice. In addition to the previously described mutations in the EnvZ/OmpR operon, we describe the rapid and systematic selection of mutations in the flagellar flhDC operon and in malT, the transcriptional activator of the maltose regulon. Moreover, within each m

SUBMITTER: De Paepe M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3116916 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature