A Mechanistic Explanation Linking Adaptive Mutation, Niche Change, and Fitness Advantage for the Wrinkly Spreader

Figure 1

Adaptive radiation in static microcosms gives rise to the Wrinkly Spreader with a new niche preference. Shown on the left is a King’s B agar plate, incubated for three days at 28°C, spread with a sample taken from a diversified P. fluorescens SBW25 population where both Smooth morphs and Wrinkly Spreader colonies are evident (this plate has seven Smooth colonies each with a rounded circumference and a smooth convex surface, with one positioned at the top of the plate; all of the rest are Wrinkly Spreader colonies which have irregular, multilobed circumferences and a flattened and wrinkled surface). On the right are two static King’s B microcosms which were incubated for three days at 28°C. The left microcosm was inoculated with the wild-type or ancestral SBW25 which grows throughout the liquid column, and the right microcosm with the Wrinkly Spreader which colonises the A-L interface through the formation of a robust biofilm.