The effect of adaptive mutagenesis on genetic variation at a linked, neutral locus
- Boston Univ., MA (United States)
- Meharry Medical College, Nashville, TN (United States)
Based on recent studies in single-celled organisms, it has been argued that a fitness benefit associated with a mutation will increase the probability of that mutation occurring. This increase is independent of mutation rates at other loci and is called adaptive mutagenesis. We modeled the effect of adaptive mutagenesis on populations of haploid organisms with adaptive mutation rates ranging from 0 to 1 x 10{sup -5}. Allele frequencies at the selected locus and a neutral linked locus were tracked. We also observed the amount of linkage disequilibrium during the selective sweep and the final heterozygosity after the sweep. The presence of adaptive mutagenesis increases the number of genetic backgrounds carrying the new fitter allele, making the outcomes more representative of the population before the selection. Therefore, more neutral genetic variation is preserved in simulations with adaptive mutagenesis than in those without it due to hitchhiking. Since adaptive mutagensis is time-dependent, it can generate mutants when other mechanisms of mutation cannot. In addition, adaptive mutagenesis has the potential to confound both phylogeny construction and the detection of natural selection from patterns of nucleotide variation. 27 refs., 4 figs.
- OSTI ID:
- 99066
- Journal Information:
- Genetics, Vol. 140, Issue 3; Other Information: PBD: Jul 1995
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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