Experimental estimate of the abundance and effects of nearly neutral mutations in the RNA virus phi 6.

ABSTRACT: Although the frequency and effects of neutral and nearly neutral mutations are critical to evolutionary patterns and processes governed by genetic drift, the small effects of such mutations make them difficult to study empirically. Here we present the results of a mutation-accumulation experiment designed to assess the frequencies of deleterious mutations with undetectable effects. We promoted the accumulation of spontaneous mutations by subjecting independent lineages of the RNA virus 6 to repeated population bottlenecks of a single individual. We measured fitness following every bottleneck to obtain a complete picture of the timing and effects of the accumulated mutations with detectable effects and sequenced complete genomes to determine the number of mutations that were undetected by t

SUBMITTER: Burch CL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1893061 | biostudies-literature | 2007 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature