Evolution of pH-sensitive transcription termination in during adaptation to repeated long-term starvation.

Fluctuating environments that consist of regular cycles of co-occurring stress are a common challenge faced by cellular populations. For a population to thrive in constantly changing conditions, an ability to coordinate a rapid cellular response is essential. Here, we identify a mutation conferring an arginine-to-histidine (Arg to His) substitution in the transcription terminator Rho.

Case Studies in the Assessment of Microbial Fitness: Seemingly Subtle Changes Can Have Major Effects on Phenotypic Outcomes.

Following the completion of an adaptive evolution experiment, fitness evaluations are routinely conducted to assess the magnitude of adaptation. In doing so, proper consideration should be given when determining the appropriate methods as trade-offs may exist between accuracy and throughput. Here, we present three instances in which small changes in the framework or execution of fitness evaluations significantly impacted the outcomes.

A Guide to COVID-19: a global pandemic caused by the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2.

The emergence of the SARS-CoV-2 strain of the human coronavirus has thrown the world into the midst of a new pandemic. In the human body, the virus causes COVID-19, a disease characterized by shortness of breath, fever, and pneumonia, which can be fatal in vulnerable individuals. SARS-CoV-2 has characteristics of past human coronaviruses, with close genomic similarities to SARS-CoV, the virus that causes the disease SARS.