Fig. 4: Predicted mutations in ancestral and evolved Lactococcus lactis isolates reveal distinct genotypes emerging from mono- and co-cultures.

A selection of L-(black-labels) and S-morphotype (blue-labels) isolates (X-axis) evolved in mono-cultures or co-cultures, respectively, and two ancestors were selected for whole-genome sequencing. Predicted mutations by the computational pipeline breseq, including SNPs, insertions, and deletions in coding and non-coding regions, are arranged according to the isolates’ evolutionary background (ancestor, mono- or co-culture) and experimental lineage (A–E). Y-axis with gene descriptions is listed according to the chromosomal position. Some of the unique mutations identified for co-cultivation are associated with growth, for example an ATP synthase or DNA translocase. In contrast, unique mutations of mono-culture variants are associated with for example an endonuclease. Noticeably, mutations in a helix–turn–helix transcriptional regulator were only identified in the S-morphotype, which suggests that this morphotype is associated with a change in this regulator. For more detailed information on chromosomal position and mutations, see Supplementary Table 2.