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Volume 170, Issue 8

A tradeoff between bacteriophage resistance and bacterial motility is mediated by the Rcs phosphorelay in Open Access

Abstract

Across the tree of life, pleiotropy is thought to constrain adaptation through evolutionary tradeoffs. However, few examples of pleiotropy exist that are well explained at the genetic level, especially for pleiotropy that is mediated by multiple genes. Here, we describe a set of pleiotropic mutations that mediate two key fitness components in bacteria: parasite resistance and motility. We subjected to strong selection by phage U136B to obtain 27 independent mucoid mutants. Mucoidy is a phenotype that results from excess exopolysaccharide and can act as a barrier against viral infection but can also interfere with other cellular functions. We quantified the mutants’ phage resistance using efficiency of plaquing assays and swimming motility using swim agar plates, and we sequenced the complete genomes of all mutants to identify mucoid-causing mutations. Increased phage resistance co-occurred with decreased motility. This relationship was mediated by highly parallel (27/27) mutations to the Rcs phosphorelay pathway, which senses membrane stress to regulate exopolysaccharide production. Together, these results provide an empirical example of a pleiotropic relationship between two traits with intermediate genetic complexity.

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  • Accepted:
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Keyword(s): all-or-nothing pleiotropy , bacteria , bacteriophage , continuous pleiotropy , phosphorelay and resistance
Funding
This study was supported by the:
  • Illumina sequencing provided by the Great Lakes Genomics Center at the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee (RRID:SCR_017838)
    • Principle Award Recipient: AlitaR Burmeister
  • University of Wisconsin Milwaukee Support for Undergraduate Research Fellowship program
    • Principle Award Recipient: AlitaR Burmeister
© 2024 The Authors
  • This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License.
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2024-08-28
2025-07-19
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/content/journal/micro/10.1099/mic.0.001491
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A tradeoff between bacteriophage resistance and bacterial motility is mediated by the Rcs phosphorelay in Escherichia coli
Microbiology 170, 001491 (2024); https://doi.org/10.1099/mic.0.001491
/content/journal/micro/10.1099/mic.0.001491
/content/journal/micro/10.1099/mic.0.001491
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