Escherichia coli rpoB mutants have increased evolvability in proportion to their fitness defects.

ABSTRACT: Evolvability is the capacity of an organism or population for generating descendants with increased fitness. Simulations and comparative studies have shown that evolvability can vary among individuals and identified characteristics of genetic architectures that can promote evolvability. However, little is known about how the evolvability of biological organisms typically varies along a lineage at each mutational step in its history. Evolvability might increase upon sustaining a deleterious mutation because there are many compensatory paths in the fitness landscape to reascend the same fitness peak or because shifts to new peaks become possible. We use genetic marker divergence trajectories to parameterize and compare the evolvability--defined as the fitness increase realized by an evolving

SUBMITTER: Barrick JE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2872623 | biostudies-literature | 2010 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature