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Evolutionary resurrection of flagellar motility via rewiring of the nitrogen regulation system

Taylor, T. B., Mulley, G. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0650-478X, Dills, A. H., Alsohim, A. S., McGuffin, L. J. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4501-4767, Studholme, D. J., Silby, M. W., Brockhurst, M. A., Johnson, L. J. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0006-1511 and Jackson, R. W. (2015) Evolutionary resurrection of flagellar motility via rewiring of the nitrogen regulation system. Science, 347 (6225). pp. 1014-1017. ISSN 0036-8075

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To link to this item DOI: 10.1126/science.1259145

Abstract/Summary

A central process in evolution is the recruitment of genes to regulatory networks. We engineered immotile strains of the bacterium Pseudomonas fluorescens that lack flagella due to deletion of the regulatory gene fleQ. Under strong selection for motility, these bacteria consistently regained flagella within 96 hours via a two-step evolutionary pathway. Step 1 mutations increase intracellular levels of phosphorylated NtrC, a distant homologue of FleQ, which begins to commandeer control of the fleQ regulon at the cost of disrupting nitrogen uptake and assimilation. Step 2 is a switch-of-function mutation that redirects NtrC away from nitrogen uptake and towards its novel function as a flagellar regulator. Our results demonstrate that natural selection can rapidly rewire regulatory networks in very few, repeatable mutational steps.

Item Type:Article
Refereed:Yes
Divisions:Life Sciences > School of Biological Sciences > Biomedical Sciences
Life Sciences > School of Biological Sciences > Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
ID Code:39447
Publisher:AAAS

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