A high-resolution two-step evolution experiment in yeast reveals a shift from pleiotropic to modular adaptation.

ABSTRACT: Evolution by natural selection is expected to be a slow and gradual process. In particular, the mutations that drive evolution are predicted to be small and modular, incrementally improving a small number of traits. However, adaptive mutations identified early in microbial evolution experiments, cancer, and other systems often provide substantial fitness gains and pleiotropically improve multiple traits at once. We asked whether such pleiotropically adaptive mutations are common throughout adaptation or are instead a rare feature of early steps in evolution that tend to target key signaling pathways. To do so, we conducted barcoded second-step evolution experiments initiated from 5 first-step mutations identified from a prior yeast evolution experiment. We then isolated hundreds of second-

SUBMITTER: Kinsler G 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11620474 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature