Adaptive Evolution under Extreme Genetic Drift in Oxidatively Stressed Caenorhabditis elegans.

ABSTRACT: A mutation-accumulation (MA) experiment with Caenorhabditis elegans nematodes was conducted in which replicate, independently evolving lines were initiated from a low-fitness mitochondrial electron transport chain mutant, gas-1. The original intent of the study was to assess the effect of electron transport chain dysfunction involving elevated reactive oxygen species production on patterns of spontaneous germline mutation. In contrast to results of standard MA experiments, gas-1 MA lines evolved slightly higher mean fitness alongside reduced among-line genetic variance compared with their ancestor. Likewise, the gas-1 MA lines experienced partial recovery to wildtype reactive oxygen species levels. Whole-genome sequencing and analysis revealed that the molecular spectrum but not the overal

SUBMITTER: Christy SF 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5714194 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature