Microbial populations under nonlethal selection can give rise to mutations
that relieve the selective pressure, a phenomenon that has come to be calle
d "adaptive mutation." One explanation for adaptive mutation is that a smal
l proportion of the cells experience a period of transient hypermutation, a
nd that these hypermutators account for the mutations that appear. The expe
riments reported here investigated the contribution that hypermutators make
to the mutations occurring in a Lac(-) strain of Escherichia coli during s
election for lactose utilization. A broad mutational screen, loss of motili
ty, was used to compare the frequency of nonselected mutations in starved L
ac(-) cells, in Lac(+) revertants, and in Lac(+) revertants carrying yet an
other nonselected mutation. These frequencies allowed us to calculate that
the hypermutating subpopulation makes up approximate to 0.06% of the popula
tion and that its mutation rate is elevated approximate to 200-fold. From t
hese numbers we conclude that the hypermutators are responsible for nearly
all multiple mutations but produce only approximate to 10% of the adaptive
Lac(+) mutations.