Migration promotes mutator alleles in subdivided populations.

ABSTRACT: Mutator alleles that elevate the genomic mutation rate may invade nonrecombining populations by hitchhiking with beneficial mutations. Mutators have been repeatedly observed to take over adapting laboratory populations and have been found at high frequencies in both microbial pathogen and cancer populations in nature. Recently, we have shown that mutators are only favored by selection in sufficiently large populations and transition to being disfavored as population size decreases. This population size-dependent sign inversion in selective effect suggests that population structure may also be an important determinant of mutation rate evolution. Although large populations may favor mutators, subdividing such populations into sufficiently small subpopulations (demes) might effectively inhibi

SUBMITTER: Raynes Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6680344 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature