Random changes in behavior speed bacteria evolution

Random changes in microbes’ behavior can speed up evolution, a new study shows.These shifts — called phenotype switches — can promote genetic mutations that help microbes better survive their environment, researchers report online January 19 at BioRxiv.org. Understanding how the microbes evolve is “particularly important for antibiotic resistance,” says study coauthor Bartlomiej Waclaw, a physicist at the University of Edinburgh.Waclaw and colleagues used computer modeling to look at how an organism’s phenotype — in this case, its growth behavior — might influence its genetic makeup, or genotype, in an unchanging environment. The experiment could represent how bacteria replicate and evolve to reach an antibiotic-resistant state, the researchers suggest. Read more