Science on Tap Series: Trans-Generational Trauma in Bacteria with Chris Marx
Faced with a lethal stress, microbial populations must either evolve genetic resistance or die, right? For Methylobacterium extorquens, lethal levels of the toxic metabolic intermediate formaldehyde can select for mutants beneficial in this environment, but we have also found that they can survive via epigenetic inheritance. This occurs at much higher rates and can be passed on many generations later. The ability to survive epigenetically influences genetic adaptation in multiple ways.
