Fig. 1. Immotile variants of P. fluorescens SBW25 (AR2) undergo highly repeatable evolution of flagella-mediated motility.
A Immotile populations evolved on soft agar (left) re-evolved flagella-mediated motility through one-step de novo mutation (right). B Phenotype emergence on M9 minimal media appeared rapidly, typically within 3-5 days following inoculation (sample size N = 33 independent biological replicates). The centre displays the median, box bounds represent the 25th and 75th percentiles, and whiskers extend from the box bounds to the minima and maxima values, the lengths of which reach up to 1.5 * the inter-quartile range. Individual data points are also plotted. C The underlying genetic changes were highly parallel, with all independent lines targeting one of two sites (left circle, A289C and right circle Δ406-417) within the ntrB locus at the expense of other sites within the nitrogen (ntr) pathway. D A single transversion mutation, A289C, was the most common mutational route, appearing in over 95% of independent lines (N = 23/24). Source data are provided as a Source Data file.