Variable pleiotropic effects from mutations at the same locus hamper prediction of fitness from a fitness component.

ABSTRACT: The relationship of genotype, fitness components, and fitness can be complicated by genetic effects such as pleiotropy and epistasis and by heterogeneous environments. However, because it is often difficult to measure genotype and fitness directly, fitness components are commonly used to estimate fitness without regard to genetic architecture. The small bacteriophage X174 enables direct evaluation of genetic and environmental effects on fitness components and fitness. We used 15 mutants to study mutation effects on attachment rate and fitness in six hosts. The mutants differed from our lab strain of X174 by only one or two amino acids in the major capsid protein (gpF, sites 101 and 102). The sites are variable in natural and experimentally evolved X174 populations and affect phage attachme

SUBMITTER: Pepin KM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1456406 | biostudies-literature | 2006 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature