Convergent genetic adaptation of Escherichia coli in minimal media leads to pleiotropic divergence

Adaptation in an environment can either be beneficial, neutral or disadvantageous in another. To test the genetic basis of pleiotropic behaviour, we evolved six lines of E. coli independently in environments where glucose and galactose were the sole carbon sources, for 300 generations. All six lines in each environment exhibit convergent adaptation in the environment in which they were evolved. However, pleiotropic behaviour was observed in several environmental contexts, including other carbon environments. Genome sequencing reveals that mutations in global regulators rpoB and rpoC cause this pleiotropy. We report three new alleles of the rpoB gene, and one new allele of the rpoC gene. The novel rpoB alleles confer resistance to Rifampicin, and alter motility. Our results show how single nucleotide changes in the process of adaptation in minimal media can lead to wide-scale pleiotropy, resulting in changes in traits that are not under direct selection.