Fig. 2.

Mechanisms of mutation bias are affected by the bacterial growth cycle and other environmental stressors. A selection of mutagenic features (left) vary in their mutagenicity depending on the bacterial growth phase (heightened mutagenicity highlighted by red bars). The mutagenicity of each feature can additionally be amplified by non-general stress response (NGSR) triggers, as shown on the right. The effect of environment and growth phase on the listed features reflect studies performed on common model organisms, however there will be genomic backgrounds for which these trends do not apply. For example, while many bacteria most actively replicate during the logarithmic phase, the cyanobacteria Synechococcus elongatus performs intensive replication during the lag phase [165], meaning replication infidelity may be most mutagenic during an earlier phase. Full details of the publications informing this figure are provided in Table S1. Figure created with BioRender.com.