Environmental influence on evolutionary processes in bacterial populations

细菌种群在许多环境和医疗环境中表现出显著的适应能力。它们通过改变基因表达来应对环境压力，但当细胞以不理想的生长速度生长时，对突变率和适应性有什么影响？我们计划测试祖先种群的生理状态是否是种群随后对选择的反应的决定因素。使用受控培养条件的简单模型系统将被用来研究环境、突变率和选择下的适合度之间的联系。这些联系的证明将对微生物学和对进化的理解产生重大影响。

Bacterial populations exhibit remarkable adaptive capabilities in many environmental and medical settings. They respond to environmental stress in terms of altered gene expression, but what are the effects on mutation rates and fitness when cells grow at suboptimal growth rates? We plan to test whether the physiological state of an ancestral population is a determinant of a population's subsequent response to selection. A simple model system using controlled culture conditions will be used to investigate the linkage between environment, mutation rate and fitness under selection. Demonstration of these linkages will have significant impacts on microbiology and understanding evolution.