Loading…

Ecological speciation of bacteriophage lambda in allopatry and sympatry

Understanding the conditions that allow speciation to occur is difficult because most research has focused on either long-lived organisms or asexual microorganisms. We propagated bacteriophage λ, a virus with rapid generations and frequent recombination, on two Escherichia coli host genotypes that e...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science) 2016-12, Vol.354 (6317), p.1301-1304
Main Authors: Meyer, Justin R., Dobias, Devin T., Medina, Sarah J., Servilio, Lisa, Gupta, Animesh, Lenski, Richard E.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Understanding the conditions that allow speciation to occur is difficult because most research has focused on either long-lived organisms or asexual microorganisms. We propagated bacteriophage λ, a virus with rapid generations and frequent recombination, on two Escherichia coli host genotypes that expressed either the LamB or OmpF receptor. When supplied with either single host (allopatry), phage λ improved its binding to the available receptor while losing its ability to use the alternative. When evolving on both hosts together (sympatry), the viruses split into two lineages with divergent receptor preferences. Although the level of divergence varied among replicates, some lineages evolved reproductive isolation via genetic incompatibilities. This outcome indicates that, under suitable conditions, allopatric and sympatric speciation can occur with similar ease.
ISSN:0036-8075
1095-9203
DOI:10.1126/science.aai8446