Skip to main content
NCBI home page
Genetics logoLink to Genetics
. 1994 Oct;138(2):253–261. doi: 10.1093/genetics/138.2.253

Population Dynamics of a Lac(-) Strain of Escherichia Coli during Selection for Lactose Utilization

P L Foster 1
PMCID: PMC1206144  PMID: 7828809

Abstract

During selection for lactose utilization, Lac(+) revertants of FC40, a Lac(-) strain of Escherichia coli, appear at a high rate. Yet, no Lac(+) revertants appear in the absence of lactose, or in its presence if the cells have another, unfulfilled requirement for growth. This study investigates more fully the population dynamics of FC40 when incubated in the absence of a carbon source or when undergoing selection for lactose utilization. In the absence of a carbon source, the viable cell numbers do not change over 6 days. When incubated in liquid lactose medium, Lac(-) cells do not undergo any measurable increase in numbers or in turbidity for at least 2 days. When FC40 is plated on lactose minimum medium in the presence of scavenger cells, the upper limit to the amount of growth of Lac(-) cells during 5 days is one doubling, and there is no evidence for turnover (i.e., a balance between growth and death). The presence of a minority population that could form microcolonies was not detected. The implications of these results, plus the fact that the appearance of Lac(+) revertants during lactose selection is nearly constant with time, are discussed in reference to several models that have been postulated to account for adaptive mutations.

Full Text

The Full Text of this article is available as a PDF (1.0 MB).

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Cairns J., Foster P. L. Adaptive reversion of a frameshift mutation in Escherichia coli. Genetics. 1991 Aug;128(4):695–701. doi: 10.1093/genetics/128.4.695. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Cairns J., Overbaugh J., Miller S. The origin of mutants. Nature. 1988 Sep 8;335(6186):142–145. doi: 10.1038/335142a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Coulondre C., Miller J. H. Genetic studies of the lac repressor. III. Additional correlation of mutational sites with specific amino acid residues. J Mol Biol. 1977 Dec 15;117(3):525–567. doi: 10.1016/0022-2836(77)90056-0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Foster P. L. Adaptive mutation: the uses of adversity. Annu Rev Microbiol. 1993;47:467–504. doi: 10.1146/annurev.mi.47.100193.002343. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Foster P. L., Cairns J. Mechanisms of directed mutation. Genetics. 1992 Aug;131(4):783–789. doi: 10.1093/genetics/131.4.783. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Foster P. L. Directed mutation: between unicorns and goats. J Bacteriol. 1992 Mar;174(6):1711–1716. doi: 10.1128/jb.174.6.1711-1716.1992. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Foster P. L., Trimarchi J. M. Adaptive reversion of a frameshift mutation in Escherichia coli by simple base deletions in homopolymeric runs. Science. 1994 Jul 15;265(5170):407–409. doi: 10.1126/science.8023164. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Hall B. G. Spectrum of mutations that occur under selective and non-selective conditions in E. coli. Genetica. 1991;84(2):73–76. doi: 10.1007/BF00116545. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Hall B. G. Spontaneous point mutations that occur more often when advantageous than when neutral. Genetics. 1990 Sep;126(1):5–16. doi: 10.1093/genetics/126.1.5. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Harris R. S., Longerich S., Rosenberg S. M. Recombination in adaptive mutation. Science. 1994 Apr 8;264(5156):258–260. doi: 10.1126/science.8146657. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Jin D. J., Gross C. A. Characterization of the pleiotropic phenotypes of rifampin-resistant rpoB mutants of Escherichia coli. J Bacteriol. 1989 Sep;171(9):5229–5231. doi: 10.1128/jb.171.9.5229-5231.1989. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Kolter R., Siegele D. A., Tormo A. The stationary phase of the bacterial life cycle. Annu Rev Microbiol. 1993;47:855–874. doi: 10.1146/annurev.mi.47.100193.004231. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Lenski R. E., Slatkin M., Ayala F. J. Another alternative to directed mutation. Nature. 1989 Jan 12;337(6203):123–124. doi: 10.1038/337123b0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Lenski R. E., Slatkin M., Ayala F. J. Mutation and selection in bacterial populations: alternatives to the hypothesis of directed mutation. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1989 Apr;86(8):2775–2778. doi: 10.1073/pnas.86.8.2775. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  15. Luria S. E., Delbrück M. Mutations of Bacteria from Virus Sensitivity to Virus Resistance. Genetics. 1943 Nov;28(6):491–511. doi: 10.1093/genetics/28.6.491. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  16. Mackay W. J., Han S., Samson L. D. DNA alkylation repair limits spontaneous base substitution mutations in Escherichia coli. J Bacteriol. 1994 Jun;176(11):3224–3230. doi: 10.1128/jb.176.11.3224-3230.1994. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  17. Origin of mutants disputed. Nature. 1988 Dec 8;336(6199):525–528. doi: 10.1038/336525a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  18. Origin of mutants disputed. Nature. 1988 Dec 8;336(6199):525–528. doi: 10.1038/336525a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  19. Ovchinnikov Y. A., Monastyrskaya G. S., Guriev S. O., Kalinina N. F., Sverdlov E. D., Gragerov A. I., Bass I. A., Kiver I. F., Moiseyeva E. P., Igumnov V. N. RNA polymerase rifampicin resistance mutations in Escherichia coli: sequence changes and dominance. Mol Gen Genet. 1983;190(2):344–348. doi: 10.1007/BF00330662. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  20. Prival M. J., Cebula T. A. Sequence analysis of mutations arising during prolonged starvation of Salmonella typhimurium. Genetics. 1992 Oct;132(2):303–310. doi: 10.1093/genetics/132.2.303. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  21. Rosenberg S. M., Longerich S., Gee P., Harris R. S. Adaptive mutation by deletions in small mononucleotide repeats. Science. 1994 Jul 15;265(5170):405–407. doi: 10.1126/science.8023163. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  22. Stahl F. W. Unicorns revisited. Genetics. 1992 Dec;132(4):865–867. doi: 10.1093/genetics/132.4.865. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  23. Steele D. F., Jinks-Robertson S. An examination of adaptive reversion in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Genetics. 1992 Sep;132(1):9–21. doi: 10.1093/genetics/132.1.9. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  24. Stewart F. M., Gordon D. M., Levin B. R. Fluctuation analysis: the probability distribution of the number of mutants under different conditions. Genetics. 1990 Jan;124(1):175–185. doi: 10.1093/genetics/124.1.175. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  25. Tlsty T. D., Albertini A. M., Miller J. H. Gene amplification in the lac region of E. coli. Cell. 1984 May;37(1):217–224. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(84)90317-9. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  26. Zambrano M. M., Siegele D. A., Almirón M., Tormo A., Kolter R. Microbial competition: Escherichia coli mutants that take over stationary phase cultures. Science. 1993 Mar 19;259(5102):1757–1760. doi: 10.1126/science.7681219. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Genetics are provided here courtesy of Oxford University Press

RESOURCES