Chromosomal Position of Ribosomal Protein Genes Affects Long-Term Evolution of Vibrio cholerae
Leticia Larotonda, Damien Mornico, Varun Khanna, Joaquín Bernal-Bayard, Jean‐Marc Ghigo, Marie‐Eve Val, Diego J. Comerci, Didier Mazel, Alfonso Soler‐Bistué
Abstract
. Growth rate differences persisted after 1,000 generations. No mutation was able to compensate for the growth defect, showing that ribosomal gene location conditions their evolutionary trajectory. Despite the high plasticity of bacterial genomes, evolution has sculpted gene order to optimize the ecological strategy of the microorganism. We observed growth rate improvement throughout the evolution experiment that occurred at expense of energetically costly processes such the flagellum biosynthesis and virulence-related functions. From the biotechnological point of view, manipulation of gene order enables altering bacterial growth with no escape events.