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. 2011 Jul 21;7(7):e1002160. doi: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1002160

Figure 5. Genotype-environment-fitness map.

Figure 5

The fitness cost Inline graphic of the lac pathway is shown as a function of the operator genotype summary variable Inline graphic (maximum rate of protein production at a growth of 1 cell division/hr, see text) and the external inducer concentration Inline graphic. The model fitness landscape is again strongly nonlinear: it has a stable upper branch (solid shading) and an unstable lower branch (striped shading) separated by a fitness cliff (blue line), similar to the phenotype-fitness map of Figure 4. Model predictions for individual strains under varying inducer concentrations are shown as a family of red lines (light red: wild type; dark red: operator mutant strains with Inline graphic equal to wild type value, see text). Experimental fitness values are shown as dots (the offset from the model surface is marked by gray lines).