Generation of mutation hotspots in ageing bacterial colonies
How do ageing bacterial colonies generate adaptive mutants? Over a period of two months, we isolated on ageing colonies outgrowing mutants able to use a new carbon source, and sequenced their genomes. This allowed us to uncover exquisite details on the molecular mechanism behind their adaptation: most mutations were located in just a few hotspots in the genome and over time, mutations increasingly originated from 8-oxo-guanosine, formed exclusively on the transcribed strand.
Evolutionary Biology↗