Experimental evolution with <Emphasis Type="Italic">E. coli</Emphasis> in diverse resource environments. I. Fluctuating environments promote divergence of replicate populations

Background  

Environmental conditions affect the topology of the adaptive landscape and thus the trajectories followed by evolving populations. For example, a heterogeneous environment might lead to a more rugged adaptive landscape, making it more likely that replicate populations would evolve toward distinct adaptive peaks, relative to a uniform environment. To date, the influence of environmental variability on evolutionary dynamics has received relatively little experimental study.