Comment Re:Mutations (Score 1) 130
If they escape, they won't have time. If they don't escape, there won't be any pressure on them to do so.
When they escape, they'll have plenty of time as they'll be escaping along with chunkettes of their growth medium, containing the synthetic amino acids they need. As the bacteria grows the concentration of synthetic amino acids will decrease relative to population, creating the pressure to adapt to not need it. Further, no pressure is necessary for an effective change to come about - all specialization is random, and it sticks around if it is not detrimental.