Spontaneous mutational and standing genetic (co)variation at dinucleotide microsatellites in Caenorhabditis briggsae and Caenorhabditis elegans.

ABSTRACT: Understanding the evolutionary processes responsible for shaping genetic variation within and between species requires separating the effects of mutation and selection. Differences between the patterns of genetic variation observed in nature and when mutations are allowed to accumulate in the relative absence of selection can reveal biases imposed by selection. We characterize the genetic variation at dinucleotide microsatellite repeats in four sets of 250-generation mutation accumulation (MA) lines, two in the species Caenorhabditis briggsae and two in Caenorhabditis elegans, and compare the mutational variation with the standing variation in those species. We also compare the mutational properties of microsatellites with the cumulative effects of mutations on fitness in the same lines. I

SUBMITTER: Phillips N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2767092 | biostudies-literature | 2009 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature