Jenna Gallie

Unraveling the genetics of a bistable phenotype

The evolutionary success of many microbial populations is contingent upon their ability to adapt to rapidly changing environments. Bistable switches provide a unique mechanism to enhance the phenotypic diversity – and thereby overall fitness in fluctuating environments – of clonal microbial populations.

Through repetitive, cyclic manipulation of environmental conditions we have evolved a heritable, bistable switch in Pseudomonas fluorescens SBW25, the operation of which results in phenotypic dichotomy at the cellular level. My research focuses on unraveling the sequence of evolutionary events that gave rise to the bistable behaviour, and characterizing the genetic causes and mechanistic bases of the switch.