Assessing the benefits of horizontal gene transfer by laboratory evolution and genome sequencing.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Recombination is widespread across the tree of life, because it helps purge deleterious mutations and creates novel adaptive traits. In prokaryotes, it often takes the form of horizontal gene transfer from a donor to a recipient bacterium. While such transfer is widespread in natural communities, its immediate fitness benefits are usually unknown. We asked whether any such benefits depend on the environment, and on the identity of donor and recipient strains. To this end, we adapted Escherichia coli to two novel carbon sources over several hundred generations of laboratory evolution, exposing evolving populations to various DNA donors.

Results

At the end of these experiments, we measured fitness and sequenced the genomes of 65 clones from 34 replicate populations

SUBMITTER: Chu HY 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5909237 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature