Dynamics and genetic diversification of Escherichia coli during experimental adaptation to an anaerobic environment.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Many bacteria are facultative anaerobes, and can proliferate in both anoxic and oxic environments. Under anaerobic conditions, fermentation is the primary means of energy generation in contrast to respiration. Furthermore, the rates and spectra of spontaneous mutations that arise during anaerobic growth differ to those under aerobic growth. A long-term selection experiment was undertaken to investigate the genetic changes that underpin how the facultative anaerobe, Escherichia coli, adapts to anaerobic environments.

Methods

Twenty-one populations of E. coli REL4536, an aerobically evolved 10,000th generation descendent of the E. coli B strain, REL606, were established from a clonal ancestral culture. These were serially sub-cultured for 2,000

SUBMITTER: Finn TJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5419217 | biostudies-literature | 2017

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature