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Identification Of Adaptive Changes In An Evolving Population Of Escherichia Coli: The Role Of Changes With Regulatory And Highly Pleiotropic Effects, A. Kurlandzka, Frank Rosenzweig, J. Adams

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

A population of Escherichia coli initiated with a single clone developed extensive morphological and physiological polymorphism after being maintained for 773 generations in glucose-limited continuous culture. To understand the mechanisms of adaptation to this environment, total protein patterns of four adaptive clones and of the parent strains were examined by two-dimensional gel electrophoresis. Approximately 20% of the proteins (approximately 160 in absolute numbers) showed significantly different levels of expression in pairwise comparisons of parent and adapted clones. The extent of these changes points to the importance of mutations with regulatory and/or highly pleiotropic effects in the adaptive process. The four …