Evolution of intragenotypic individual heterogeneity in Escherichia coli bacteria

• Applicant: Dr. Ulrich Steiner
• Subject Area: Evolution, Anthropology
• Term: since 2024
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 550091421

Individuals differ in their phenotypes and these differences are not only driven by genetic variance and environmental variation, but also stochastic processes, such as noisy gene expression. Such intragenotypic variation can slow and accelerate evolution. It remains little understood is how such stochastic processes influence demographic fates and thereby population and evolutionary dynamics. Also, we lack understanding how intragenotypic heterogeneity evolves and is maintained. In this project we evolve lines of bacteria under varying environmental conditions to reveal how evolutionary history determines intragenotypic variability and what genes drive such variability. In doing so we will gain unique insights into the evolution and maintenance of intragenotypic phenotypic variation and its shaping of evolutionary and demographic processes.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• Co-Investigators: Professor Dr. Tobias Bollenbach; Dr. Hugues Richard