Dataset Information

E Unibus Plurum: genomic analysis of an experimentally evolved polymorphism in Escherichia coli.

ABSTRACT: Microbial populations founded by a single clone and propagated under resource limitation can become polymorphic. We sought to elucidate genetic mechanisms whereby a polymorphism evolved in Escherichia coli under glucose limitation and persisted because of cross-feeding among multiple adaptive clones. Apart from a 29 kb deletion in the dominant clone, no large-scale genomic changes distinguished evolved clones from their common ancestor. Using transcriptional profiling on co-evolved clones cultured separately under glucose-limitation we identified 180 genes significantly altered in expression relative to the common ancestor grown under similar conditions. Ninety of these were similarly expressed in all clones, and many of the genes affected (e.g., mglBAC, mglD, and lamB) are in operons coordinately regulated by CRP and/or rpoS. While the remaining significant expression differences were clone-specific, 93% were exhibited by the majority clone, many of which are controlled by global regulators, CRP and CpxR. When transcriptional profiling was performed on adaptive clones cultured together, many expression differences that distinguished the majority clone cultured in isolation were absent, suggesting that CpxR may be activated by overflow metabolites removed by cross-feeding strains in co-culture. Relative to their common ancestor, shared expression differences among adaptive clones were partly attributable to early-arising shared mutations in the trans-acting global regulator, rpoS, and the cis-acting regulator, mglO. Gene expression differences that distinguished clones may in part be explained by mutations in trans-acting regulators malT and glpK, and in cis-acting sequences of acs. In the founder, a cis-regulatory mutation in acs (acetyl CoA synthetase) and a structural mutation in glpR (glycerol-3-phosphate repressor) likely favored evolution of specialists that thrive on overflow metabolites. Later-arising mutations that led to specialization emphasize the importance of compensatory rather than gain-of-function mutations in this system. Taken together, these findings underscore the importance of regulatory change, founder genotype, and the biotic environment in the adaptive evolution of microbes.

SUBMITTER: Kinnersley MA

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2763269 | biostudies-literature | 2009 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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E Unibus Plurum: genomic analysis of an experimentally evolved polymorphism in Escherichia coli.

Kinnersley Margie A MA Holben William E WE Rosenzweig Frank F

PLoS genetics 20091106 11

Microbial populations founded by a single clone and propagated under resource limitation can become polymorphic. We sought to elucidate genetic mechanisms whereby a polymorphism evolved in Escherichia coli under glucose limitation and persisted because of cross-feeding among multiple adaptive clones. Apart from a 29 kb deletion in the dominant clone, no large-scale genomic changes distinguished evolved clones from their common ancestor. Using transcriptional profiling on co-evolved clones cultur ...[more]

PMID: 19893610

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Project description:BackgroundHigh temperatures cause a suite of problems for cells, including protein unfolding and aggregation; increased membrane fluidity; and changes in DNA supercoiling, RNA stability, transcription and translation. Consequently, enhanced thermotolerance can evolve through an unknown number of genetic mechanisms even in the simple model bacterium Escherichia coli. To date, each E. coli study exploring this question resulted in a different set of mutations. To understand the changes that can arise when an organism evolves to grow at higher temperatures, we sequenced and analyzed two previously described E. coli strains, BM28 and BM28 ΔlysU, that have been laboratory adapted to the highest E. coli growth temperature reported to date.ResultsWe found three large deletions in the BM28 and BM28 ΔlysU strains of 123, 15 and 8.5 kb in length and an expansion of IS10 elements. We found that BM28 and BM28 ΔlysU have considerably different genomes, suggesting that the BM28 culture that gave rise to BM28 and BM28 ΔlysU was a mixed population of genetically different cells. Consistent with published findings of high GroESL expression in BM28, we found that BM28 inexplicitly carries the groESL bearing plasmid pOF39 that was maintained simply by high-temperature selection pressure. We identified over 200 smaller insertions, deletions, single nucleotide polymorphisms and other mutations, including changes in master regulators such as the RNA polymerase and the transcriptional termination factor Rho. Importantly, this genome analysis demonstrates that the commonly cited findings that LysU plays a crucial role in thermotolerance and that GroESL hyper-expression is brought about by chromosomal mutations are based on a previous misinterpretation of the genotype of BM28.ConclusionsThis whole-genome sequencing study describes genetically distinct mechanisms of thermotolerance evolution from those found in other heat-evolved E. coli strains. Studying adaptive laboratory evolution to heat in simple model organisms is important in the context of climate change. It is important to better understand genetic mechanisms of enhancing thermotolerance in bacteria and other organisms, both in terms of optimizing laboratory evolution methods for various organisms and in terms of potential genetic engineering of organisms most at risk or most important to our societies and ecosystems.

Project description:Microbial populations founded by a single clone and propagated under resource limitation can become polymorphic. We sought to understand how stable polymorphism arose in an Escherichia coli population that evolved for 765 generations under continuous glucose limitation. Apart from a 29 kb deletion in the dominant clone, no large-scale genomic changes distinguish evolved clones from their common ancestor. However, when co-evolved clones are cultured separately their transcriptional profiles differ markedly from that ancestor, and do so in ways that are consistent with our understanding of how E. coli adapts to glucose limitation. All adaptive clones exhibit reduced activity of the stationary-phase sigma factor σS and increased expression of glucose transport genes, including the glycoporin LamB and the galactose transporter MglABC. Other expression differences, such as up-regulation of acetyl-CoA synthetase, are clone-specific and confirm previous reports of acetate cross-feeding in this system. When co-evolved clones are cultured together, transcription profiling reveals another class of genes whose expression in the dominant clone differs from that observed when the clone is cultured by itself. Many of these genes are part of the CpxR-mediated stress response. CpxR activation in monoculture likely results from extracellular accumulation of acetate that is removed by acetate-scavenging strains in co-culture. Targeted gene sequencing reveals that global regulatory mutations in σS as well as small-scale regulatory mutations in the maltose and acetyl CoA synthetase operons contribute to the evolution of cross-feeding. Finally, we identified two mutations in the founder that likely pre-disposed the experimental population to develop specialists that thrive on overflow metabolites. Subsequent mutations that lead to specialization emphasize the importance of compensatory rather than gain-of-function mutations in this system. Observations that polymorphism readily evolves in an asexual population, that adaptive mutants arise without large-scale change in genome architecture, and that morphs have both common and unique patterns of gene expression influenced by whether they are cultured separately or together, underscore the importance of regulatory change, founder genotype, and the biotic environment in the adaptive evolution of microbes.

Project description:Microbial populations founded by a single clone and propagated under resource limitation can become polymorphic. We sought to understand how stable polymorphism arose in an Escherichia coli population that evolved for 765 generations under continuous glucose limitation. Apart from a 29 kb deletion in the dominant clone, no large-scale genomic changes distinguish evolved clones from their common ancestor. However, when co-evolved clones are cultured separately their transcriptional profiles differ markedly from that ancestor, and do so in ways that are consistent with our understanding of how E. coli adapts to glucose limitation. All adaptive clones exhibit reduced activity of the stationary-phase sigma factor ÏS and increased expression of glucose transport genes, including the glycoporin LamB and the galactose transporter MglABC. Other expression differences, such as up-regulation of acetyl-CoA synthetase, are clone-specific and confirm previous reports of acetate cross-feeding in this system. When co-evolved clones are cultured together, transcription profiling reveals another class of genes whose expression in the dominant clone differs from that observed when the clone is cultured by itself. Many of these genes are part of the CpxR-mediated stress response. CpxR activation in monoculture likely results from extracellular accumulation of acetate that is removed by acetate-scavenging strains in co-culture. Targeted gene sequencing reveals that global regulatory mutations in ÏS as well as small-scale regulatory mutations in the maltose and acetyl CoA synthetase operons contribute to the evolution of cross-feeding. Finally, we identified two mutations in the founder that likely pre-disposed the experimental population to develop specialists that thrive on overflow metabolites. Subsequent mutations that lead to specialization emphasize the importance of compensatory rather than gain-of-function mutations in this system. Observations that polymorphism readily evolves in an asexual population, that adaptive mutants arise without large-scale change in genome architecture, and that morphs have both common and unique patterns of gene expression influenced by whether they are cultured separately or together, underscore the importance of regulatory change, founder genotype, and the biotic environment in the adaptive evolution of microbes. Four isolates of E. coli evolved under long-term glucose limitation were grown in glucose-limited chemostat culture to steady state. Each isolate was grown separately (i.e in monoculture) in triplicate and three of the four (CV101, CV103, CV115 and CV116) were grown as a consortium in duplicate. Each experiment, or biological replicate, was sampled twice for monoculture experiments and once for consortium experiments. Total RNA from each sample was competitvely hybridized against total RNA from the common ancestor of the isolates grown at the same time in a separate chemostat using the same feed medium. For monoculture experiments, three hybridizations were done for each experiment: two hybridizations comparison for the first sample and a single hybridization for the second (with the exception of sample Jv116-1A which was only hybridized twice due to lack of sufficient RNA). For consortium experiments, two hybridizations were done for each biological replicate.

Project description:Microbial populations founded by a single clone and propagated under resource limitation can become polymorphic. We sought to understand how stable polymorphism arose in an Escherichia coli population that evolved for 765 generations under continuous glucose limitation. Apart from a 29 kb deletion in the dominant clone, no large-scale genomic changes distinguish evolved clones from their common ancestor. However, when co-evolved clones are cultured separately their transcriptional profiles differ markedly from that ancestor, and do so in ways that are consistent with our understanding of how E. coli adapts to glucose limitation. All adaptive clones exhibit reduced activity of the stationary-phase sigma factor Ï?S and increased expression of glucose transport genes, including the glycoporin LamB and the galactose transporter MglABC. Other expression differences, such as up-regulation of acetyl-CoA synthetase, are clone-specific and confirm previous reports of acetate cross-feeding in this system. When co-evolved clones are cultured together, transcription profiling reveals another class of genes whose expression in the dominant clone differs from that observed when the clone is cultured by itself. Many of these genes are part of the CpxR-mediated stress response. CpxR activation in monoculture likely results from extracellular accumulation of acetate that is removed by acetate-scavenging strains in co-culture. Targeted gene sequencing reveals that global regulatory mutations in Ï?S as well as small-scale regulatory mutations in the maltose and acetyl CoA synthetase operons contribute to the evolution of cross-feeding. Finally, we identified two mutations in the founder that likely pre-disposed the experimental population to develop specialists that thrive on overflow metabolites. Subsequent mutations that lead to specialization emphasize the importance of compensatory rather than gain-of-function mutations in this system. Observations that polymorphism readily evolves in an asexual population, that adaptive mutants arise without large-scale change in genome architecture, and that morphs have both common and unique patterns of gene expression influenced by whether they are cultured separately or together, underscore the importance of regulatory change, founder genotype, and the biotic environment in the adaptive evolution of microbes. Four isolates of E. coli evolved under long-term glucose limitation and their common ancestor were grown in Luria broth to stationary phase. Genomic DNA from each of the evolved isolates was competitively hybridized against genomic DNA from the ancestral strain.

Dataset Information

E Unibus Plurum: genomic analysis of an experimentally evolved polymorphism in Escherichia coli.

Publications

E Unibus Plurum: genomic analysis of an experimentally evolved polymorphism in Escherichia coli.

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