Evolutionary stalling and a limit on the power of natural selection to improve a cellular module.

ABSTRACT: Cells consist of molecular modules which perform vital biological functions. Cellular modules are key units of adaptive evolution because organismal fitness depends on their performance. Theory shows that in rapidly evolving populations, such as those of many microbes, adaptation is driven primarily by common beneficial mutations with large effects, while other mutations behave as if they are effectively neutral. As a consequence, if a module can be improved only by rare and/or weak beneficial mutations, its adaptive evolution would stall. However, such evolutionary stalling has not been empirically demonstrated, and it is unclear to what extent stalling may limit the power of natural selection to improve modules. Here we empirically characterize how natural selection improves the translat

SUBMITTER: Venkataram S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7414050 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature