Tracking rare mutations through time in evolving Escherichia coli populations. Escherichia coli REL606

More than 25 years of study of the Long Term Experimental Evolution (LTEE) of REL606 has identified numerous genes which provide fitness benefit to the organism when mutated. Here we track rare (< 0.01% of the total population) mutations in 8 genes (targeted for enrichment via solution based sequence capture) through 500 generations of laboratory evolution. This has provided more detailed mapping of the beneficial mutational landscape than previously possible.