High-throughput laboratory evolution of Escherichia coli under multiple stress environments

Bacterial cells have a remarkable capacity to adapt and to evolve to environmental changes. Although many mutations contributing to adaptive evolution have been identified, the relationship between the mutations and the phenotypic changes responsible for fitness gain has yet to be fully elucidated. For a better understanding of phenotype-genotype relationship in evolutionary dynamics, we performed high-throughput laboratory evolution of Escherichia coli under various stress conditions using an automated culture system. Genome re-sequencing and transcriptome analysis of obtained strains were performed to extract the mechanisms for stress resistance.