Mutational biases influence parallel adaptation

Stoltzfus, A., McCandlish, D. M. (September 2017) Mutational biases influence parallel adaptation. Mol Biol Evol, 34 (9). pp. 2163-2172. ISSN 0737-4038

Abstract

While mutational biases strongly influence neutral molecular evolution, the role of mutational biases in shaping the course of adaptation is less clear. Here we consider the frequency of transitions relative to transversions among adaptive substitutions. Because mutation rates for transitions are higher than those for transversions, if mutational biases influence the dynamics of adaptation, then transitions should be over-represented among documented adaptive substitutions. To test this hypothesis, we assembled 2 sets of data on putatively adaptive amino acid replacements that have occurred in parallel during evolution, either in nature or in the laboratory. We find that the frequency of transitions in these data sets is much higher than would be predicted under a null model where mutation has no effect. Our results are qualitatively similar even if we restrict ourself to changes that have occurred, not merely twice, but three or more times. These results suggest that the course of adaptation is biased by mutation.

Item Type: Paper
Uncontrolled Keywords: experimental evolution mutation-biased adaptation parallelism transition-transversion bias
Subjects: evolution
CSHL Authors:
Communities: CSHL labs > McCandlish lab
Depositing User: Matt Covey
Date: 1 September 2017
Date Deposited: 07 Sep 2017 19:27
Last Modified: 07 Jul 2021 18:51
PMCID: PMC5850294
Related URLs:
URI: https://repository.cshl.edu/id/eprint/35272

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