Tested Studies for Laboratory Teaching (ABLE Proceedings)

Title:

Battle of the Bacteria: Characterizing the Evolutionary Advantage of Stationary Phase Growth

Url:

http://www.ableweb.org/volumes/vol-37/v37reprint.php?ch=20

Author:

Brian Sato
Karin Kram

Author's Address:

California State University, Dominguez Hills, Carson, CA
University of California Irvine, Biology Department, CA

Email Address:

bsato@uci.edu

Description: Cells grown into long-term stationary phase (LTSP – greater than 10 days) are better adapted to the
environment, and thus are able to outcompete un-aged cells. This is the growth advantage in stationary
phase (GASP) phenomenon. This module is hypothesis driven, and allows the students to alter the culture
medium in a manner of their choosing to uncover the variable’s impact on the GASP phenotype and its
relationship with cell stress and frequency of genome mutation. In doing so, the students are capable of
seeing evolution occur within this short module. The below report is an abbreviated and updated summary
of work previously published (Kram et al., 2016). For more information, please reference this paper or
contact the authors.

Keywords:

evolution
microbiology
long-term stationary phase (LTSP)
discovery-driven experiment
growth advantage in stationary phase (GASP)

Topic:

Microbiology

BEN Subject/Discipline Taxonomy:

Microbiology

Learning Resource Type:

Laboratory exercise (DCMI Type Vocabulary)

Context:

Undergraduate upper division 15-16

Format:

pdf