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Published Online July 6, 2006
Science DOI: 10.1126/science.1129865

Reports

Submitted on May 11, 2006
Accepted on June 7, 2006

Clonal Adaptive Radiation in a Constant Environment

Ram Maharjan 1, Shona Seeto 1, Lucinda Notley-McRobb 1, Thomas Ferenci 1*

1 School of Molecular and Microbial Biosciences, The University of Sydney, NSW 2006 Australia.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed.
Thomas Ferenci , E-mail: tferenci{at}mail.usyd.edu.au

The evolution of new combinations of bacterial properties contributes to biodiversity and the emergence of new diseases. We investigated the capacity for bacterial divergence with a chemostat culture of Escherichia coli. A clonal population radiated into >5 phenotypic clusters within 26 days, with multiple variations to global regulation, metabolic strategies, surface properties and nutrient permeability pathways. Most isolates belonged to a single ecotype and neither periodic selection events nor ecological competition for a single niche prevented an adaptive radiation with a single resource. The multidirectional exploration of fitness space is an underestimated ingredient to bacterial success even in unstructured environments.


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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)