Contrasting mutation rates from specific-locus and long-term mutation-accumulation procedures.

ABSTRACT: Until recently, the two predominant ways to estimate mutation rates were the specific-locus method and the mutation-accumulation (Bateman-Mukai) method. Both involve seeding a number of parallel lines from a small, genetically uniform population, growing as long as is feasible but not so long as to allow selection to perturb mutant frequencies, and sometimes using extreme bottlenecks to facilitate the retention of deleterious mutations. In the specific-locus method, mutations are selected according to their specific phenotypes and are confirmed by sequencing. In older versions of the mutation-accumulation method, the increase in variance of a quantitative fitness trait is measured and converted into a mutation rate. More recently, a variation on the mutation-accumulation method has become

SUBMITTER: Drake JW 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3337476 | biostudies-literature | 2012 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature