Primordial mimicry induces morphological change in Escherichia coli

The morphology of primitive cells has been the subject of extensive research. A spherical form was commonly presumed in prebiotic studies but lacked experimental evidence in living cells. Whether and how the shape of living cells changed are unclear. Here we exposed the rod-shaped bacterium Escherichia coli to a resource utilization regime mimicking a primordial environment. Oleate was given as an easy-to-use model prebiotic nutrient, as fatty acid vesicles were likely present on the prebiotic Earth and might have been used as an energy resource. Six evolutionary lineages were generated under glucose-free but oleic acid vesicle (OAV)-rich conditions. Intriguingly, fitness increase was commonly associated with the morphological change from rod to sphere and the decreases in both the size and the area-to-volume ratio of the cell. The changed cell shape was conserved in either OAVs or glucose, regardless of the trade-offs in carbon utilization and protein abundance. Highly differentiated mutations present in the genome revealed two distinct strategies of adaption to OAV-rich conditions, i.e., either directly targeting the cell wall or not. The change in cell morphology of Escherichia coli for adapting to fatty acid availability supports the assumption of the primitive spherical form.