Recursive genomewide recombination and sequencing reveals a key refinement step in the evolution of a metabolic innovation in Escherichia coli.

ABSTRACT: Evolutionary innovations often arise from complex genetic and ecological interactions, which can make it challenging to understand retrospectively how a novel trait arose. In a long-term experiment, Escherichia coli gained the ability to use abundant citrate (Cit(+)) in the growth medium after ∼31,500 generations of evolution. Exploiting this previously untapped resource was highly beneficial: later Cit(+) variants achieve a much higher population density in this environment. All Cit(+) individuals share a mutation that activates aerobic expression of the citT citrate transporter, but this mutation confers only an extremely weak Cit(+) phenotype on its own. To determine which of the other >70 mutations in early Cit(+) clones were needed to take full advantage of citrate, we developed a rec

SUBMITTER: Quandt EM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3926077 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature