Adaptations Accumulated under Prolonged Resource Exhaustion Are Highly Transient.

ABSTRACT: Many nonsporulating bacterial species can survive for years within exhausted growth media in a state termed long-term stationary phase (LTSP). We have been carrying out evolutionary experiments aimed at elucidating the dynamics of genetic adaptation under LTSP. We showed that Escherichia coli adapts to prolonged resource exhaustion through the highly convergent acquisition of mutations. In the most striking example of such convergent adaptation, we observed that across all independently evolving LTSP populations, over 90% of E. coli cells carry mutations to one of three specific sites of the RNA polymerase core enzyme (RNAPC). These LTSP adaptations reduce the ability of the cells carrying them to grow once fresh resources are again provided. Here, we examine how LTSP populat

SUBMITTER: Avrani S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7426164 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature