Fitness effects of new mutations in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii across two stress gradients.

ABSTRACT: Most spontaneous mutations affecting fitness are likely to be deleterious, but the strength of selection acting on them might be impacted by environmental stress. Such stress-dependent selection could expose hidden genetic variation, which in turn might increase the adaptive potential of stressed populations. On the other hand, this variation might represent a genetic load and thus lead to population extinction under stress. Previous studies to determine the link between stress and mutational effects on fitness, however, have produced inconsistent results. Here, we determined the net change in fitness in 29 genotypes of the green algae Chlamydomonas reinhardtii that accumulated mutations in the near absence of selection for approximately 1000 generations across two stress gradients, increa

SUBMITTER: Kraemer SA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4982031 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature