Bacteria Evolve to Process Lactose in a Test Tube

But “laboratory” adaptations can also be more complex, involving the evolution of whole new biochemical systems. Perhaps the ultimate challenge is simply to take away a gene that a microbe needs to survive in a particular environment, and see how it responds. Can it evolve a way around this problem? The answer is usually yes. In a dramatic experiment, Barry Hall and his colleagues at the University of Rochester began a study by deleting a gene from E. coli. This gene produces an enzyme th...