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The need for generating precisely designed mutations is common in genetics, biochemistry, and molecular biology. Here, I describe a new λ Red recombineering method (Direct and Inverted Repeat stimulated excision; DIRex) for fast and easy generation of single point mutations, small insertions or replacements as well as deletions of any size, in bacterial genes. The method does not leave any resistance marker or scar sequence and requires only one transformation to generate a semi-stable intermediate insertion mutant. Spontaneous excision of the intermediate efficiently and accurately generates the final mutant. In addition, the intermediate is transferable between strains by generalized transductions, enabling transfer of the mutation into multiple strains without repeating the recombineering step. Existing methods that can be used to accomplish similar results are either (i) more complicated to design, (ii) more limited in what mutation types can be made, or (iii) require expression of extrinsic factors in addition to λ Red. I demonstrate the utility of the method by generating several deletions, small insertions/replacements, and single nucleotide exchanges in Escherichia coli and Salmonella enterica. Furthermore, the design parameters that influence the excision frequency and the success rate of generating desired point mutations have been examined to determine design guidelines for optimal efficiency.

Gene duplications allow evolution of genes with new functions. Here, we describe the innovation-amplification-divergence (IAD) model in which the new function appears before duplication and functionally distinct new genes evolve under continuous selection. One example fitting this model is a preexisting parental gene in Salmonella enterica that has low levels of two distinct activities. This gene is amplified to a high copy number, and the amplified gene copies accumulate mutations that provide enzymatic specialization of different copies and faster growth. Selection maintains the initial amplification and beneficial mutant alleles but is relaxed for other less improved gene copies, allowing their loss. This rapid process, completed in fewer than 3000 generations, shows the efficacy of the IAD model and allows the study of gene evolution in real time.

Synonymous mutations do not change the sequence of the polypeptide but they may still influence fitness. We investigated in Salmonella enterica how four synonymous mutations in the rpsT gene (encoding ribosomal protein S20) reduce fitness (i.e., growth rate) and the mechanisms by which this cost can be genetically compensated. The reduced growth rates of the synonymous mutants were correlated with reduced levels of the rpsT transcript and S20 protein. In an adaptive evolution experiment, these fitness impairments could be compensated by mutations that either caused up-regulation of S20 through increased gene dosage (due to duplications), increased transcription of the rpsT gene (due to an rpoD mutation or mutations in rpsT), or increased translation from the rpsT transcript (due to rpsT mutations). We suggest that the reduced levels of S20 in the synonymous mutants result in production of a defective subpopulation of 30S subunits lacking S20 that reduce protein synthesis and bacterial growth and that the compensatory mutations restore S20 levels and the number of functional ribosomes. Our results demonstrate how specific synonymous mutations can cause substantial fitness reductions and that many different types of intra- and extragenic compensatory mutations can efficiently restore fitness. Furthermore, this study highlights that also synonymous sites can be under strong selection, which may have implications for the use of dN/dS ratios as signature for selection.

When new genes evolve through modification of existing genes, there are often tradeoffs between the new and original functions, making gene duplication and amplification necessary to buffer deleterious effects on the original function. We have used experimental evolution of a bacterial strain lacking peptide release factor 1 (RF1) in order to study how peptide release factor 2 (RF2) evolves to compensate the loss of RF1. As expected, amplification of the RF2-encoding gene prfB to high copy number was a rapid initial response, followed by the appearance of mutations in RF2 and other components of the translation machinery. Characterization of the evolved RF2 variants by their effects on bacterial growth rate, reporter gene expression, and in vitro translation termination reveals a complex picture of reduced discrimination between the cognate and near-cognate stop codons and highlights a functional tradeoff that we term “collateral toxicity.” We suggest that this type of tradeoff may be a more serious obstacle in new gene evolution than the more commonly discussed evolutionary tradeoffs between “old” and “new” functions of a gene, as it cannot be overcome by gene copy number changes. Further, we suggest a model for how RF2 autoregulation responds to alterations in the demand not only for RF2 activity but also for RF1 activity.

New genes can arise by duplication and divergence, but there is a fundamental gap in our understanding of the relationship between these genes, the evolving proteins they encode, and the fitness of the organism. Here we used crystallography, NMR dynamics, kinetics, and mass spectrometry to explain the molecular innovations that arose during a previous real-time evolution experiment. In that experiment, the (βα)₈ barrel enzyme HisA was under selection for two functions (HisA and TrpF), resulting in duplication and divergence of the hisA gene to encode TrpF specialists, HisA specialists, and bifunctional generalists. We found that selection affects enzyme structure and dynamics, and thus substrate preference, simultaneously and sequentially. Bifunctionality is associated with two distinct sets of loop conformations, each essential for one function. We observed two mechanisms for functional specialization: structural stabilization of each loop conformation and substrate-specific adaptation of the active site. Intracellular enzyme performance, calculated as the product of catalytic efficiency and relative expression level, was not linearly related to fitness. Instead, we observed thresholds for each activity above which further improvements in catalytic efficiency had little if any effect on growth rate. Overall, we have shown how beneficial substitutions selected during real-time evolution can lead to manifold changes in enzyme function and bacterial fitness. This work emphasizes the speed at which adaptive evolution can yield enzymes with sufficiently high activities such that they no longer limit the growth of their host organism, and confirms the (βα)₈ barrel as an inherently evolvable protein scaffold.

The distribution of fitness effects of mutations is a factor of fundamental importance in evolutionary biology. We determined the distribution of fitness effects of 510 mutants that each carried between 1 and 10 mutations (synonymous and nonsynonymous) in the hisA gene, encoding an essential enzyme in the l-histidine biosynthesis pathway of Salmonella enterica. For the full set of mutants, the distribution was bimodal with many apparently neutral mutations and many lethal mutations. For a subset of 81 single, nonsynonymous mutants most mutations appeared neutral at high expression levels, whereas at low expression levels only a few mutations were neutral. Furthermore, we examined how the magnitude of the observed fitness effects was correlated to several measures of biophysical properties and phylogenetic conservation.We conclude that for HisA: (i) The effect of mutations can be masked by high expression levels, such that mutations that are deleterious to the function of the protein can still be neutral with regard to organism fitness if the protein is expressed at a sufficiently high level; (ii) the shape of the fitness distribution is dependent on the extent to which the protein is rate-limiting for growth; (iii) negative epistatic interactions, on an average, amplified the combined effect of nonsynonymous mutations; and (iv) no single sequence-based predictor could confidently predict the fitness effects of mutations in HisA, but a combination of multiple predictors could predict the effect with a SD of 0.04 resulting in 80% of the mutations predicted within 12% of their observed selection coefficients.

Genes introduced by horizontal gene transfer (HGT) from other species constitute a significant portion of many bacterial genomes, and the evolutionary dynamics of HGTs are important for understanding the spread of antibiotic resistance and the emergence of new pathogenic strains of bacteria. The fitness effects of the transferred genes largely determine the fixation rates and the amount of neutral diversity of newly acquired genes in bacterial populations. Comparative analysis of bacterial genomes provides insight into what genes are commonly transferred, but direct experimental tests of the fitness constraints on HGT are scarce. Here, we address this paucity of experimental studies by introducing 98 random DNA fragments varying in size from 0.45 to 5 kb from Bacteroides, Proteus, and human intestinal phage into a defined position in the Salmonella chromosome and measuring the effects on fitness. Using highly sensitive competition assays, we found that eight inserts were deleterious with selection coefficients (s) ranging from ≈ −0.007 to −0.02 and 90 did not have significant fitness effects. When inducing transcription from a PBAD promoter located at one end of the insert, 16 transfers were deleterious and 82 were not significantly different from the control. In conclusion, a major fraction of the inserts had minor effects on fitness implying that extra DNA transferred by HGT, even though it does not confer an immediate selective advantage, could be maintained at selection-transfer balance and serve as raw material for the evolution of novel beneficial functions.

The need for generating precisely designed mutations is common in genetics, biochemistry, and molecular biology. Here, I describe a new [lambda] Red recombineering method (Direct and Inverted Repeat stimulated excision; DIRex) for fast and easy generation of single point mutations, small insertions or replacements as well as deletions of any size, in bacterial genes. The method does not leave any resistance marker or scar sequence and requires only one transformation to generate a semi-stable intermediate insertion mutant. Spontaneous excision of the intermediate efficiently and accurately generates the final mutant. In addition, the intermediate is transferable between strains by generalized transductions, enabling transfer of the mutation into multiple strains without repeating the recombineering step. Existing methods that can be used to accomplish similar results are either (i) more complicated to design, (ii) more limited in what mutation types can be made, or (iii) require expression of extrinsic factors in addition to [lambda] Red. I demonstrate the utility of the method by generating several deletions, small insertions/replacements, and single nucleotide exchanges in Escherichia coli and Salmonella enterica. Furthermore, the design parameters that influence the excision frequency and the success rate of generating desired point mutations have been examined to determine design guidelines for optimal efficiency.

The mutation sufY204 mediates suppression of a +1 frameshift mutation in the histidine operon of Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium and synthesis of two novel modified nucleosides in tRNA. The sufY204 mutation, which results in an amino‐acid substitution in a protein, is, surprisingly, dominant over its wild‐type allele and thus it is a 'gain of function' mutation. One of the new nucleosides is 5‐methylaminomethyl‐2‐thiouridine (mnm 5 s 2 U34) modified by addition of a C 10 H 17 side chain of unknown structure. Increased amounts of both nucleosides in tRNA are correlated to gene dosage of the sufY204 allele, to an increased efficiency of frameshift suppression, and to a decreased amount of the wobble nucleoside mnm 5 s 2 U34 in tRNA. Purified tRNA Gln cmnm5s2UUG in the mutant strain contains a modified nucleoside similar to the novel nucleosides and the level of aminoacylation of tRNA Gln cmnm5s2UUG was reduced to 26% compared to that found in the wild type (86%). The results are discussed in relation to the mechanism of reading frame maintenance and the evolution of modified nucleosides in tRNA.

Bacteria are known to display extensive metabolic diversity and many studies have shown that they can use an extensive repertoire of small molecules as carbon- and energy sources. However, it is less clear to what extent a bacterium can expand its existing metabolic capabilities by acquiring mutations that, for example, rewire its metabolic pathways. To investigate this capability and potential for evolution of novel phenotypes, we sampled large populations of mutagenized Salmonella enterica to select very rare mutants that can grow on minimal media containing 124 low molecular weight compounds as sole carbon sources. We found mutants growing on 18 of these novel carbon sources, and identified the causal mutations that allowed growth for four of them. Mutations that relieve physiological constraints or increase expression of existing pathways were found to be important contributors to the novel phenotypes. For the remaining 14 novel phenotypes, whole genome sequencing of independent mutants and genetic analysis suggested that these novel metabolic phenotypes result from a combination of multiple mutations. This work, by virtue of identifying the genetic and mechanistic basis for new metabolic capabilities, sheds light on the properties of adaptive landscapes underlying the evolution of novel phenotypes.