The Following Questions Refer to Figure 27.1

Multiple Choice

The following questions refer to Figure 27.1.
In this eight-year experiment, 12 populations of E. coli, each begun from a single cell, were grown in low-glucose conditions for 20,000 generations. Each culture was introduced to fresh growth medium every 24 hours. Occasionally, samples were removed from the populations, and their fitness in low-glucose conditions was tested against that of members sampled from the ancestral (common ancestor) E. coli population.

Figure 27.1
-E. coli cells typically make most of their ATP by metabolizing glucose. Under the conditions of this experiment, what should be true of E. coli's generation time (especially early in the course of the experiment, but less so later on) ?

A) Generation time should be the same as in the typical environment.
B) Generation time should be faster than in the typical environment.
C) Generation time should be slower than in the typical environment.
D) It is theoretically impossible to make any predictions about generation time under these conditions.