Figure 1.

Regardless of culture mixing strategy, over 60 days of culture, B. subtilis populations diversified in biofilm-forming ability, and diverse colony morphotypes were maintained. Samples of ancestral cells (A) or evolved populations from the 60^th day of representative shaker and static cultures (B and C, respectively), were serially diluted to form individual colonies, plated on LB, and incubated for 15 hours at 37°C. Cyan arrow indicates mucoid colony, black (<) indicate fuzzy colonies, magenta arrowhead indicates smooth colonies, yellow (*) indicate wrinkled colonies. Images show standard 85 mm diameter plates.