The evolutionary emergence of stochastic phenotype switching in bacteria

Microbial Cell Factories

Proceedings

Jenna Gallie¹  Hubertus JE Beaumont²  Christian Kost³  Gayle C Ferguson⁴  Xue-Xian Zhang⁴  Eric Libby⁴  Paul B Rainey⁵ 

[1] Department of Biology, University of Washington, Seattle, USA;Department of Bionanoscience, Delft University of Technology, Kavli Institute of Nanoscience, Delft, The Netherlands;Department of Bioorganic Chemistry, Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology, Jena, Germany;New Zealand Institute for Advanced Study and Allan Wilson Centre for Molecular Ecology & Evolution,Massey University at Albany, Auckland, New Zealand;New Zealand Institute for Advanced Study and Allan Wilson Centre for Molecular Ecology & Evolution,Massey University at Albany, Auckland, New Zealand;Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology, Plön, Germany;

关键词: Population Bottleneck;    Neisseria Meningitidis;    Contingency Locus;    Phenotypic State;    Switching Type;   

DOI  :  10.1186/1475-2859-10-S1-S14

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

Stochastic phenotype switching – or bet hedging – is a pervasive feature of living systems and common in bacteria that experience fluctuating (unpredictable) environmental conditions. Under such conditions, the capacity to generate variable offspring spreads the risk of being maladapted in the present environment, against offspring likely to have some chance of survival in the future. While a rich subject for theoretical studies, little is known about the selective causes responsible for the evolutionary emergence of stochastic phenotype switching. Here we review recent work – both theoretical and experimental – that sheds light on ecological factors that favour switching types over non-switching types. Of particular relevance is an experiment that provided evidence for an adaptive origin of stochastic phenotype switching by subjecting bacterial populations to a selective regime that mimicked essential features of the host immune response. Central to the emergence of switching types was frequent imposition of ‘exclusion rules’ and ‘population bottlenecks’ – two complementary faces of frequency dependent selection. While features of the immune response, exclusion rules and bottlenecks are likely to operate in many natural environments. Together these factors define a set of selective conditions relevant to the evolution of stochastic switching, including antigenic variation and bacterial persistence.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© Rainey et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2011