Additional file 3: of Assessing the benefits of horizontal gene transfer by laboratory evolution and genome sequencing

Figure S1. Schematic diagram of E. coli donor strain genotypes. We used three different E. coli strains as our DNA donors. Each strain harbored an F plasmid region (blue) integrated into the tryptophan operon. This region contains the tra genes encoding the proteins involved in conjugation. The donors are tryptophan auxotrophs, caused by the F plasmid insertion into the trp operon. In addition, two origin of transfers (OriTs, green) are inserted into each donor genome (at the pseudogenes mbhA, hyfC genes, or the inactivated genes hsdRS, depending on the donor). Thus, including the OriT region within the F plasmid, each donor strain has three OriT regions. (EPS 376Â kb