Abstract
MUTATIONS are a double-edged sword: they are the ultimate source of genetic variation upon which evolution depends, yet most mutations affecting fitness (viability and reproductive success) appear to be harmful1. Deleterious mutations of small effect can escape natural selection, and should accumulate in small populations2–4. Reduced fitness from deleterious-mutation accumulation may be important in the evolution of sex5–7, mate choice8,9, and diploid life-cycles10, and in the extinction of small populations11,12. Few empirical data exist, however. Minimum estimates of the genomic deleterious-mutation rate for viability in Drosophila melanogaster are surprisingly high1,13,14, leading to the conjecture that the rate for total fitness could exceed 1.0 mutation per individual per generation5,6. Here we use Escherichia coli to provide an estimate of the genomic deleterious-mutation rate for total fitness in a microbe. We estimate that the per-microbe rate of deleterious mutations is in excess of 0.0002.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 51 print issues and online access
$199.00 per year
only $3.90 per issue
Buy this article
- Purchase on Springer Link
- Instant access to full article PDF
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Crow, J. F. & Simmons, M. J. in The Genetics and Biology of Drosophila Vol. 3C (eds Ashburner, M., Carson, H. L. & Thompson, J. N.) 1–35 (Academic, London, 1983).
Charlesworth, D., Morgan, M. T. & Charlesworth, B. Genet. Res. Camb. 61, 39–56 (1993).
Haigh, J. Theor. Pop. Biol. 14, 251–267 (1978).
Lynch, M. & Gabriel, W. Evolution 44, 1725–1737 (1990).
Muller, H. J. Mut. Res. 1, 1–9 (1964).
Kondrashov, A. S. Nature 336, 435–440 (1988).
Charlesworth, B. Genet. Res. Camb. 55, 199–221 (1990).
Charlesworth, B. in Sexual Selection: Testing the Alternatives (eds Bradbury, J. W. & Andersson, M. B.) 21–40 (Wiley, Chichester, 1987).
Kirkpatrick, M. & Ryan, M. J. Nature 350, 33–38 (1991).
Jenkins, C. D. & Kirkpatrick, M. Evolution 49, 512–520 (1995).
Lynch, M., Burger, R., Butcher, D. & Gabriel, W. J. Heredity 84, 339–344 (1993).
Lande, R. Evolution 48, 1460–1469 (1994).
Mukai, T. in Quantitative Genetic Variation (eds Thompson, J. N. & Thoday, J. M.) 177–196 (Academic, New York, 1979).
Keightley, P. D. Genetics 138, 1315–1322 (1994).
Hartl, D. L., Moriyama, E. N. & Sawyer, S. A. Genetics 138, 227–234 (1994).
Drake, J. W. Proc. natn. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 88, 7160–7164 (1991).
Lenski, R. E., Rose, M. R., Simpson, S. C. & Tadler, S. C. Am. Nat. 138, 1315–1341 (1991).
Lenski, R. E. & Travisano, M. Proc. natn. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 91, 6808–6814 (1994).
Herdman, M. in The Evolution of Genome Size (ed. Cavalier-Smith, T.) 37–68 (Wiley, London, 1985).
Cavalier-Smith, T. in The Evolution of Genome Size (ed. Cavalier-Smith, T.) 69–104 (Wiley, London, 1985).
Lindsley, D. L. & Tokuyasy, K. T. in The Genetics and Biology of Drosophila (eds Asburner, M. & Wright, T.) 226–294 (Academic, New York, 1980).
Carlton, B. C. & Brown, B. J. in Manual of Methods for General Bacteriology (ed. Gerhardt, P.) 222–242 (Am. Soc. Microbiol., Washington DC, 1981).
Bateman, A. J. Int. J. Rad. Biol. 170–180 (1959).
Lynch, M. in Ecological Genetics (ed. Real, L.) 86–108 (Princeton Univ. Press, Princeton, New Jersey, 1994).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Kibota, T., Lynch, M. Estimate of the genomic mutation rate deleterious to overall fitness in E. coll. Nature 381, 694–696 (1996). https://doi.org/10.1038/381694a0
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/381694a0
This article is cited by
-
Contribution of the SOS response and the DNA repair systems to norfloxacin induced mutations in E. coli
Marine Life Science & Technology (2023)
-
High-throughput sequencing analysis reveals genomic similarity in phenotypic heterogeneous Photorhabdus luminescens cell populations
Annals of Microbiology (2022)
-
Selection in a growing colony biases results of mutation accumulation experiments
Scientific Reports (2022)
-
Mutational meltdown of putative microbial altruists in Streptomyces coelicolor colonies
Nature Communications (2022)
-
Are mutations usually deleterious? A perspective on the fitness effects of mutation accumulation
Evolutionary Ecology (2022)
Comments
By submitting a comment you agree to abide by our Terms and Community Guidelines. If you find something abusive or that does not comply with our terms or guidelines please flag it as inappropriate.
