Figure 4. Fate of Microcolonies Developing In Situ.

Microcolonies on days 4 and 5 of separate adaptive mutation experiments were sampled by touching with a needle, then the sample was spread on rich X-gal medium and scored for point-mutant or sectored Lac⁺ phenotype (see Materials and Methods). The microcolonies were then left to grow into visible colonies (∼10⁷ cells), and the colonies sampled again and samples plated to score for sectoring (hatched bars, day 4 microcolony samples; black bars, day 5 microcolony samples). The numbers of each type of colony observed are shown next to the bars. One single stable microcolony produced a mixed visible colony, which may have been caused by overlap with another colony or microcolony.