There and back again: consequences of biofilm specialization under selection for dispersal.

ABSTRACT: Experimental evolution paired with modern sequencing can be a powerful approach to identify the mechanisms by which bacteria adapt to discrete environmental conditions found in nature or during infections. We used this approach to identify mechanisms enabling biofilm specialists of the opportunistic respiratory pathogen Burkholderia cenocepacia to regain planktonic fitness. Seven mutants producing wrinkly (W) small-colony variants by mutations in the wrinkly-spreader operon (wsp) cluster, but with varying duration of biofilm adaptation, served as ancestors of this experiment. Following planktonic growth, each W ancestor produced smooth (S) mutants with distinct fitness effects across planktonic, biofilm, and dispersal-phase environments. The causes of the S phenotype traced to mutations in

SUBMITTER: O'Rourke D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4324302 | biostudies-literature | 2015

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature