Mutagenic Characteristics of Six Heavy Metals in Escherichia coli: The Commonality and Specificity.

ABSTRACT: The history of long-term environmental exposure to heavy metals can be recorded in the genome as sporadic and specific mutations. Variable environments introduce diverse and adaptive mutations to organisms. To reveal the information hidden in genomes about environmental exposure to heavy metals, we performed long-term mutation accumulation (MA) experiments with Escherichia coli, analyzed genomes from 36 populations across 1650 generations with 6 heavy metal exposure regimes (arsenic, cadmium, chromium, copper, nickel, and lead), and inferred metal-specific evolution modes at the genomic level. All heavy metals induced genetic mutations with a mean rate of 3.459 × 10^-9 per nucleotide per generation. The mutational spectrum exhibited distinct signatures; however, heavy meta

SUBMITTER: Ba Q 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9536316 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature