Multicopy plasmids allow bacteria to escape from fitness trade-offs during evolutionary innovation.

ABSTRACT: Understanding the mechanisms governing innovation is a central element of evolutionary theory. Novel traits usually arise through mutations in existing genes, but trade-offs between new and ancestral protein functions are pervasive and constrain the evolution of innovation. Classical models posit that evolutionary innovation circumvents the constraints imposed by trade-offs through genetic amplifications, which provide functional redundancy. Bacterial multicopy plasmids provide a paradigmatic example of genetic amplification, yet their role in evolutionary innovation remains largely unexplored. Here, we reconstructed the evolution of a new trait encoded in a multicopy plasmid using TEM-1 β-lactamase as a model system. Through a combination of theory and experimentation, we show that multic

SUBMITTER: Rodriguez-Beltran J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6055991 | biostudies-literature | 2018 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature