Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2002 Oct;162(2):557-66.
doi: 10.1093/genetics/162.2.557.

Fitness evolution and the rise of mutator alleles in experimental Escherichia coli populations

Aaron C Shaver  1 , Peter G Dombrowski, Joseph Y Sweeney, Tania Treis, Renata M Zappala, Paul D Sniegowski
Affiliations

Fitness evolution and the rise of mutator alleles in experimental Escherichia coli populations

Aaron C Shaver et al. Genetics. 2002 Oct.

Abstract

We studied the evolution of high mutation rates and the evolution of fitness in three experimental populations of Escherichia coli adapting to a glucose-limited environment. We identified the mutations responsible for the high mutation rates and show that their rate of substitution in all three populations was too rapid to be accounted for simply by genetic drift. In two of the populations, large gains in fitness relative to the ancestor occurred as the mutator alleles rose to fixation, strongly supporting the conclusion that mutator alleles fixed by hitchhiking with beneficial mutations at other loci. In one population, no significant gain in fitness relative to the ancestor occurred in the population as a whole while the mutator allele rose to fixation, but a substantial and significant gain in fitness occurred in the mutator subpopulation as the mutator neared fixation. The spread of the mutator allele from rarity to fixation took >1000 generations in each population. We show that simultaneous adaptive gains in both the mutator and wild-type subpopulations (clonal interference) retarded the mutator fixation in at least one of the populations. We found little evidence that the evolution of high mutation rates accelerated adaptation in these populations.

PubMed Disclaimer

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Mol Cell Biol. 2000 Sep;20(17):6390-8 - PubMed
    1. Nature. 1996 Jun 20;381(6584):694-6 - PubMed
    1. J Biol Chem. 1998 Apr 10;273(15):9197-201 - PubMed
    1. EMBO J. 1998 Mar 2;17(5):1535-41 - PubMed
    1. Cell. 1998 Nov 13;95(4):541-52 - PubMed

Publication types