File:The effect of genome minimization on fitness and adaptation.webp

English: "Genome minimization reduced the relative fitness by 50%. However, almost all of this cost was regained over 2,000 generations of evolution. Despite the removal of nearly half of its genome, the minimal cell adapted at a rate comparable to that of the non-minimal cell, which was corroborated by fitness estimates from growth curve experiments (Extended Data Fig. 1 and Extended Data Table 1). The dark coloured symbols represent mean ± s.e.m. As the experiment was initiated with a single clone, error bars for the ancestral timepoint were calculated from technical replicates (n = 4), whereas error bars for evolved populations were calculated from replicate populations (n = 4), both of which are depicted by light coloured symbols. The solid red and blue lines are a visual aid connecting the mean values of the minimal and non-minimal populations, respectively. Source Data"