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Related Experiment Video

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Daily Transfers, Archiving Populations, and Measuring Fitness in the Long-Term Evolution Experiment with Escherichia coli

Daily Transfers, Archiving Populations, and Measuring Fitness in the Long-Term Evolution Experiment with Escherichia coli

Published on: August 18, 2023

Measuring competitive fitness in dynamic environments.

Ivan A Razinkov¹, Bridget L Baumgartner, Matthew R Bennett

¹Department of Bioengineering, University of California San Diego , La Jolla, California 92093, United States.

The Journal of Physical Chemistry. B

|July 12, 2013

Summary

Environmental fluctuations can drive evolution by selecting for subtle genetic differences in yeast. This study reveals how dynamic environments, not just static ones, influence adaptive advantage and species evolution.

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Published on: August 13, 2012

Area of Science:

Evolutionary biology
Yeast genetics
Environmental science

Background:

Many yeast genes appear non-essential for growth in stable lab conditions, challenging evolutionary theory.
Natural selection typically favors traits beneficial in consistent environments.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate how environmental fluctuations can select for genetic mechanisms not apparent in static conditions.
To develop and test a novel experimental platform for measuring genotype fitness in dynamic environments.

Main Methods:

Stochastic modeling to simulate selection under fluctuating conditions.
Development of a new experimental platform to assess yeast fitness in changing environments.
Monitoring mixed yeast cultures with differing carbon source response capabilities under fluctuating sugar conditions.

Main Results:

Environmental fluctuations can select for genetic traits that confer an advantage only in dynamic settings.
A wild-type yeast strain showed a growth advantage over a mutant strain when carbon sources (galactose/glucose) were switched.
The adaptive advantage was dependent on the total number of environmental switches, not their frequency.

Conclusions:

Environmental fluctuations exert selective pressure on subtle phenotypic differences in cellular response dynamics.
Dynamic processes are crucial for understanding the evolution of species, even with seemingly minor genetic variations.