Flagellotropic bacteriophage selects for evolutionary remodeling of cell motility and chemotaxis in Escherichia coli

Selection by the flagellotropic bacteriophage chi in Escherichia coli yields both non-motile and motile chi-resistant mutants, with single-cell motility that can recover or fall below ancestor levels.

• Why it matters: Population-mean assays can miss how phage resistance reshapes the trait distribution that selection actually acts on, including potential trade-offs versus trade-ups in motility and chemotaxis.
• What they did: Escherichia coli populations were experimentally evolved under chi on soft-agar swim plates, then whole-genome sequencing, swim-plate assays, and single-cell tracking quantified motility and tumble bias, alongside kinase-response output in chemotaxis signaling.
• The result: Resistant lineages showed increased tumble bias and altered swimming speed distributions, and resistant mutants also displayed remodeled kinase-response output, revealing diverse evolutionary outcomes across single-cell behavior and signaling.

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