Mutational Landscape of Spontaneous Base Substitutions and Small Indels in Experimental Caenorhabditis elegans Populations of Differing Size.

ABSTRACT: Experimental investigations into the rates and fitness effects of spontaneous mutations are fundamental to our understanding of the evolutionary process. To gain insights into the molecular and fitness consequences of spontaneous mutations, we conducted a mutation accumulation (MA) experiment at varying population sizes in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans, evolving 35 lines in parallel for 409 generations at three population sizes (N = 1, 10, and 100 individuals). Here, we focus on nuclear SNPs and small insertion/deletions (indels) under minimal influence of selection, as well as their accrual rates in larger populations under greater selection efficacy. The spontaneous rates of base substitutions and small indels are 1.84 (95% C.I. ± 0.14) × 10^-9 substitutions

SUBMITTER: Konrad A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6614903 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature