Evolution of mutational robustness in the yeast genome: a link to essential genes and meiotic recombination hotspots.

ABSTRACT: Deleterious mutations inevitably emerge in any evolutionary process and are speculated to decisively influence the structure of the genome. Meiosis, which is thought to play a major role in handling mutations on the population level, recombines chromosomes via non-randomly distributed hot spots for meiotic recombination. In many genomes, various types of genetic elements are distributed in patterns that are currently not well understood. In particular, important (essential) genes are arranged in clusters, which often cannot be explained by a functional relationship of the involved genes. Here we show by computer simulation that essential gene (EG) clustering provides a fitness benefit in handling deleterious mutations in sexual populations with variable levels of inbreeding and outbreeding

SUBMITTER: Keller PJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2694357 | biostudies-literature | 2009 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature