Molecular Biology and Evolution, Vol 5, 691-703, Copyright © 1988 by Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution
RD Miller, DE Dykhuizen and DL Hartl
Directed evolution in microbial organisms provides an experimental approach
to molecular evolution in which selective forces can be controlled and
favorable mutations analyzed at the molecular level. Here we present an
analysis of a mutation selected in Escherichia coli in response to growth
in a chemostat in which the limiting nutrient was gluconate. The
selectively favored mutation, designated gnd+ (862), occurred in the gene
gnd coding for 6-phosphogluconate dehydrogenase, used in gluconate
metabolism. Although the allele is strongly favored in chemostats in which
the limiting nutrient is gluconate, the selective effects of gnd+ (862) are
highly dependent on growth conditions. In chemostats in which growth is
limited by a mixture of gluconate and either ribose, glucose, or succinate,
the gnd+ (862) allele is favored, disfavored, or neutral according to the
relative concentrations of the substrates. The gnd+ (862) allele results
from a deletion of 385 nucleotide pairs in the region 5' to the promoter of
gnd, and one endpoint of the deletion is contiguous with the terminus of an
IS5 insertion sequence located near gnd in E. coli K12. The gnd+ (862)
allele shows a marked increase in transcription that accounts for most or
all of the increased enzyme activity.
ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Fitness effects of a deletion mutation increasing transcription of the 6-phosphogluconate dehydrogenase gene in Escherichia coli
Department of Genetics, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, Missouri 63110-1095.
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