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Mutations That Activate the Silent bgl Operon of Escherichia coli Confer a Growth Advantage in Stationary Phase

Department of Molecular Reproduction, Development and Genetics, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore 560012, India,¹ Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, Harvard Medical School, 200 Longwood Ave., Boston, Massachusetts 02115²

Received 13 May 2005/ Accepted 8 September 2005

Wild-type strains of Escherichia coli are unable to utilize aromatic ß-glucosides such as arbutin and salicin because the major genetic system that encodes the functions for their catabolism, the bgl operon, is silent and uninducible. We show that strains that carry an activated bgl operon exhibit a growth advantage over the wild type in stationary phase in the presence of the rpoS819 allele that causes attenuated rpoS regulon expression. Our results indicate a possible evolutionary advantage in retaining the silent bgl operon by wild-type bacteria.