Identification of the potentiating mutations and synergistic epistasis that enabled the evolution of inter-species cooperation.

ABSTRACT: Microbes often engage in cooperation through releasing biosynthetic compounds required by other species to grow. Given that production of costly biosynthetic metabolites is generally subjected to multiple layers of negative feedback, single mutations may frequently be insufficient to generate cooperative phenotypes. Synergistic epistatic interactions between multiple coordinated changes may thus often underlie the evolution of cooperation through overproduction of metabolites. To test the importance of synergistic mutations in cooperation we used an engineered bacterial consortium of an Escherichia coli methionine auxotroph and Salmonella enterica. S. enterica relies on carbon by-products from E. coli if lactose is the only carbon source. Directly selecting wild-type S. enterica in an envi

SUBMITTER: Douglas SM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5426591 | biostudies-literature | 2017

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature