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Related Experiment Videos

Experimental evolution of Pseudomonas fluorescens in simple and complex environments.

Rowan D H Barrett1, R Craig MacLean, Graham Bell

  • 1Department of Biology, McGill University, 1205 Avenue Doctor Penfield, Montreal, Quebec H3A 1B1, Canada. rowan.barrett@mail.mcgill.ca

The American Naturalist
|October 15, 2005
PubMed
Summary

Environmental complexity drives evolution towards imperfect generalists. Bacteria adapted to multiple resources without losing function, showing increased fitness and genetic variance in complex settings.

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Area of Science:

  • Evolutionary biology
  • Microbial ecology

Background:

  • Organisms in complex environments with substitutable resources may specialize.
  • Understanding niche width evolution is crucial for predicting adaptation.

Purpose of the Study:

  • Investigate how environmental complexity influences niche width evolution.
  • Determine the adaptive capacity of bacterial lineages in resource-rich environments.

Main Methods:

  • Propagated 120 replicate lines of *Pseudomonas fluorescens*.
  • Utilized experimental environments with 1 to 8 carbon substrates.
  • Monitored evolution over approximately 900 generations.

Main Results:

  • Populations in complex environments evolved greater mean and variance in fitness.

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  • Lineages adapted to multiple substrates without significant functional loss.
  • Increased genetic and genotype-by-environment interaction variance observed in complex environments.

    • Conclusions:

    • Evolution in complex environments favors 'imperfect generalists,' not narrow specialists or complete generalists.
    • Adaptation involves specialization to a range of substrates, not all.
    • Environmental complexity maintains genetic variance by diversifying optimal genotypes across resources.