Phage lambda red-mediated adaptive mutation

Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy as a novel approach for analyzing the biochemical effects of anionic surfactants on a surfactant-degrading Arcobacter butzleri strain

Anionic surfactant-biodegrading capability of an Arcobacter butzleri strain was analyzed under aerobic conditions. The A. butzleri isolate displayed efficient surfactant-biodegrading capacity for sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) at concentrations of up to 100 mg/L in 6 days, corresponding to 99.0% removal efficiency. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy was applied to observe the effects of varying concentrations of SDS on the biochemistry of bacterial cells. Results suggest that protein secondary structures were altered in bacterial cells at sufficiently high SDS concentrations, concurrent with SDS biodegradation.

The sigma(E) stress response is required for stress-induced mutation and amplification in Escherichia coli

Pathways of mutagenesis are induced in microbes under adverse conditions controlled by stress responses. Control of mutagenesis by stress responses may accelerate evolution specifically when cells are maladapted to their environments, i.e. are stressed. Stress-induced mutagenesis in the Escherichia coli Lac assay occurs either by ‘point’ mutation or gene amplification. Point mutagenesis is associated with DNA double-strand-break (DSB) repair and requires DinB error-prone DNA polymerase and the SOS DNA-damage- and RpoS general-stress responses. We report that the RpoE envelope-protein-stress response is also required. In a screen for mutagenesis-defective mutants, we isolated a transposon insertion in the rpoE P2 promoter. The insertion prevents rpoE induction during stress, but leaves constitutive expression intact, and allows cell viability. rpoE insertion and suppressed null mutants display reduced point mutagenesis and maintenance of amplified DNA. Furthermore, σ^E acts independently of stress responses previously implicated: SOS/DinB and RpoS, and of σ³², which was postulated to affect mutagenesis. I-SceI-induced DSBs alleviated much of the rpoE phenotype, implying that σ^E promoted DSB formation. Thus, a third stress response and stress input regulate DSB-repair-associated stress-induced mutagenesis. This provides the first report of mutagenesis promoted by σ^E, and implies that extracytoplasmic stressors may affect genome integrity and, potentially, the ability to evolve.

Detection by whole genome microarrays of a spontaneous 126-gene deletion during construction of a ytfE mutant: confirmation that a ytfE mutation results in loss of repair of iron-sulfur centres in proteins damaged by oxidative or nitrosative stress

We show that genomic hybridization allows detection of a spontaneous secondary deletion of 126 genes that occurred during construction of an Escherichia coli ytfE mutant, LMS4209, explaining some of its unexpected growth defects. We confirm that YtfE is required to repair damage to iron-sulfur centres and for hydrogen peroxide resistance.

Comparative genomic hybridization detects secondary chromosomal deletions in Escherichia coli K-12 MG1655 mutants and highlights instability in the flhDC region

The use of whole-genome microarrays for monitoring mutagenized or otherwise engineered genetic derivatives is a potentially powerful tool for checking genomic integrity. Using comparative genomic hybridization of a number of unrelated, directed deletion mutants in Escherichia coli K-12 MG1655, we identified unintended secondary genomic deletions in the flhDC region in delta fnr, delta crp, and delta creB mutants. These deletions were confirmed by PCR and phenotypic tests. Our findings show that nonmotile progeny are found in some MG1655 directed deletion mutants, and studies on the effects of gene knockouts should be viewed with caution when the mutants have not been screened for the presence of secondary deletions or confirmed by other methods.

Amplification of lac cannot account for adaptive mutation to Lac+ in Escherichia coli

When the Lac- strain of Escherichia coli, FC40, is incubated with lactose as its sole carbon and energy source, Lac+ revertants arise at a constant rate, a phenomenon known as adaptive mutation. Two alternative models for adaptive mutation have been proposed: (i) recombination-dependent mutation, which specifies that recombination occurring in nongrowing cells stimulates error-prone DNA synthesis, and (ii) amplification-dependent mutation, which specifies that amplification of the lac region and growth of the amplifying cells creates enough DNA replication to produce mutations at the normal rate. Here, we examined several of the predictions of the amplification-dependent mutation model and found that they are not fulfilled. First, inhibition of adaptive mutation by a gene that is toxic when overexpressed does not depend on the proximity of the gene to lac. Second, mutation at a second locus during selection for Lac+ revertants is also independent of the proximity of the locus to lac. Third, mutation at a second locus on the episome occurs even when the lac allele under selection is on the chromosome. Our results support the hypothesis that most Lac+ mutants that appear during lactose selection are true revertants that arise in a single step from Lac- cells, not from a population of growing or amplifying precursor cells.

Adaptive amplification and point mutation are independent mechanisms: evidence for various stress-inducible mutation mechanisms

“Adaptive mutation” denotes a collection of processes in which cells respond to growth-limiting environments by producing compensatory mutants that grow well, apparently violating fundamental principles of evolution. In a well-studied model, starvation of stationary-phase lac⁻ Escherichia coli cells on lactose medium induces Lac⁺ revertants at higher frequencies than predicted by usual mutation models. These revertants carry either a compensatory frameshift mutation or a greater than 20-fold amplification of the leaky lac allele. A crucial distinction between alternative hypotheses for the mechanisms of adaptive mutation hinges on whether these amplification and frameshift mutation events are distinct, or whether amplification is a molecular intermediate, producing an intermediate cell type, in colonies on a pathway to frameshift mutation. The latter model allows the evolutionarily conservative idea of increased mutations (per cell) without increased mutation rate (by virtue of extra gene copies per cell), whereas the former requires an increase in mutation rate, potentially accelerating evolution. To resolve these models, we probed early events leading to rare adaptive mutations and report several results that show that amplification is not the precursor to frameshift mutation but rather is an independent adaptive outcome. (i) Using new high-resolution selection methods and stringent analysis of all cells in very young (micro)colonies (500–10,000 cells), we find that most mutant colonies contain no detectable lac-amplified cells, in contrast with previous reports. (ii) Analysis of nascent colonies, as young as the two-cell stage, revealed mutant Lac⁺ cells with no lac-amplified cells present. (iii) Stringent colony-fate experiments show that microcolonies of lac-amplified cells grow to form visible colonies of lac-amplified, not mutant, cells. (iv) Mutant cells do not overgrow lac-amplified cells in microcolonies fast enough to mask the lac-amplified cells. (v) lac-amplified cells are not SOS-induced, as was proposed to explain elevated mutation in a sequential model. (vi) Amplification, and not frameshift mutation, requires DNA polymerase I, demonstrating that mutation is separable from amplification, and also illuminating the amplification mechanism. We conclude that amplification and mutation are independent outcomes of adaptive genetic change. We suggest that the availability of alternative pathways for genetic/evolutionary adaptation and clonal expansion under stress may be exploited during processes ranging from the evolution of drug resistance to cancer progression.

Cells can respond to stress by apparently increasing their mutation rate. This study provides evidence that there is more than one pathway by which cells achieve such a response

Natural selection and the emergence of a mutation phenotype: an update of the evolutionary synthesis considering mechanisms that affect genome variation

Most descriptions of evolution assume that all mutations are completely random with respect to their potential effects on survival. However, much like other phenotypic variations that affect the survival of the descendants, intrinsic variations in the probability, type, and location of genetic change can feel the pressure of natural selection. From site-specific recombination to changes in polymerase fidelity and repair of DNA damage, an organism's gene products affect what genetic changes occur in its genome. Through the action of natural selection on these gene products, potentially favorable mutations can become more probable than random. With examples from variation in bacterial surface proteins to the vertebrate immune response, it is clear that a great deal of genetic change is better than "random" with respect to its potential effect on survival. Indeed, some potentially useful mutations are so probable that they can be viewed as being encoded implicitly in the genome. An updated evolutionary theory includes emergence, under selective pressure, of genomic information that affects the probability of different classes of mutation, with consequences for genome survival.