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Applied and Environmental Microbiology, April 2006, p. 3032-3035, Vol. 72, No. 4
0099-2240/06/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/AEM.72.4.3032-3035.2006
Copyright © 2006, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

SHORT REPORT

Laboratory-Dependent Bacterial Ecology: a Cautionary Tale

K. J. O'Keefe,1* N. M. Morales,1 H. Ernstberger,2 G. Benoit,2 and P. E. Turner1

Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Yale University, 165 Prospect Street, New Haven, Connecticut 06520,1 School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, Yale University, 370 Prospect Street, New Haven, Connecticut 065112

Received 9 September 2005/ Accepted 31 December 2005

Although laboratory dependence is an acknowledged problem in microbiology, it is seldom intensively studied or discussed. We demonstrate that laboratory dependence is real and quantifiable even in the popular model Escherichia coli. Here laboratory effects alter the equilibrium composition of a simple community composed of two strains of E. coli. Our data rule out changes in the bacterial strains, chemical batches, and human handling but implicate differences in growth medium, especially the water component.

* Corresponding author. Present address: Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, 26 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA 02138. Phone: (617) 496-8387. Fax: (617) 495-5667. E-mail: kara.okeefe{at}yale.edu.

Applied and Environmental Microbiology, April 2006, p. 3032-3035, Vol. 72, No. 4
0099-2240/06/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/AEM.72.4.3032-3035.2006
Copyright © 2006, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.



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