SHORT TERM EVOLUTIONARY DYNAMICS OF ESCHERICHIA COLI IN DIFFERENT CARBON ENVIRONMENTS

Abstract

Starting from a parentalE. coli K-12 MG1655 strain, we evolve cells in five different carbon environments-glucose, arabinose, xylose, rhamnose, and a mixture of these four sugars (in a predefined ratio) for approximately 2,000 generations. At the end of the adaptation period, we quantify and compare growth dynamics of the strains in a variety of environments. The evolved strains show no specialized adaptation towards growth in the carbon medium in which they were evolved. Rather, in all environments, the evolved strains exhibited a reduced lag phase and an increased growth rate. Sequencing results reveal that these dynamical properties are not introduced via mutations in the precise loci associated with utilization of the sugar in which the bacterium was evolved in. These phenotypic changes are rather likely introduced via mutationselsewhere onthe genome. Sugar systems are known to exhibit hierarchy in utilization. Evolution in a defined environment, in our experimental framework, does not alter this hierarchy.