Evolutionary potential, cross-stress behavior and the genetic basis of acquired stress resistance in Escherichia coli. Escherichia coli

We evolved Escherichia coli cells over 500 generations under five environments that include four abiotic stressors: osmotic, acidic, oxidative, n-butanol, and control The goal of the experiment: Bacterial populations have a remarkable capacity to cope with extreme environmental fluctuations in their natural environments. In certain cases, adaptation to one stressful environment provides a fitness advantage when cells are exposed to a second stressor, a phenomenon that has been coined as cross-stress protection. A tantalizing question in bacterial physiology is how the cross-stress behavior emerges during adaptation and what the genetic basis of acquired stress resistance is. Overall design: RNA profiles were obtained for six E. coli strains evolved for 500 generations under abiotic stressors; two technical replicates for each strain where sequenced by Illumina GAII analyzer