Selective pressure causes an RNA virus to trade reproductive fitness for increased structural and thermal stability of a viral enzyme.

ABSTRACT: The modulation of fitness by single mutational substitutions during environmental change is the most fundamental consequence of natural selection. The antagonistic tradeoffs of pleiotropic mutations that can be selected under changing environments therefore lie at the foundation of evolutionary biology. However, the molecular basis of fitness tradeoffs is rarely determined in terms of how these pleiotropic mutations affect protein structure. Here we use an interdisciplinary approach to study how antagonistic pleiotropy and protein function dictate a fitness tradeoff. We challenged populations of an RNA virus, bacteriophage Φ6, to evolve in a novel temperature environment where heat shock imposed extreme virus mortality. A single amino acid substitution in the viral lysin protein P5 (V207F)

SUBMITTER: Dessau M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3510033 | biostudies-literature | 2012

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature