Fig. 3. Characterization of the ancestral and evolved morphotypes of the focal species at the end of the experiment.

(A) Recovered colonies formed two metabolic profile clusters in line with colony morphology. (B) Evolved morphotypes showed a more generalist resource use pattern than the ancestral strain, suggesting niche expansion during the diversification process. (C) Cumulative resource use potential of the evolved morphotypes was reduced compared to the ancestral strain, suggesting that acquisition of a new niche was accompanied by negative effects on overall resource uptake and metabolism. (D and E) Morphotypes with resource use patterns more distant from the ancestral strain showed a more generalistic resource use pattern yet a reduced overall resource use.