Latent novel traits in E.coli

Latent novel traits are the newly acquired traits that do not affect fitness in the evolution environment but can do so when the environment changes. Using E. coli, we study these traits in the form of newly gained viability on different antimicrobials. We observe that latent novel traits evolve frequently and evolution environment plays a key role in this evolution. Using whole-genome sequencing we show that pleiotropic mutations selected by the evolution environment give rise to these novel traits.