Selection for high mutation rates in chemostats.
Competition experiments in chemostats show that mutator populations of Escherichia coli are more fit than wild type. The increased fitness can be explained by the appearance of new mutants better adapted to the chemostat environment. Fitness values vary between chemostats and are strongly correlated (P < 0.001) with fluctuations in population density.
D001431:Bacteriological Techniques; D002250:Carbon Radioisotopes; D003470:Culture Media; D004926:Escherichia coli; D005796:Genes; D005827:Genetics, Microbial; D005838:Genotype; D009154:Mutation; D011336:Probability; D012641:Selection, Genetic
D002250:Carbon Radioisotopes; D003470:Culture Media