Research
Experimental evolution. – The lab-based study of evolving populations. The small size and fast generation times of microorganisms allows replicate populations to be established and maintained under defined environmental conditions for thousands of generations. Large population sizes means that a large number of mutations can be sampled by evolving populations, thus evolution can be very rapid. Because microbes can be cryopreserved, entire communities can be saved as a living “fossil record” to be resuscitated later to investigate changes of key parameters such as fitness or diversity through time and across replicates.
Experimental evolution using microbial systems has led to tremendous insight across general (e.g. understanding factors influencing the repeatability of evolution) and specific (e.g. the mechanisms contributing to bacterial specialization on particular resources) questions. Now, as techniques capable of providing global insight into molecular-level phenotypes become available, new research avenues are opening up. For example, using expression profiles to compare evolved lines has given a mechanistic insight into changes occurring during adaptation. Combining this insight with known regulatory networks will allow a more complete understanding of the underlying basis of adaptation.
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