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Updated: May 21, 2026

Generation and Isolation of Cell Cycle-arrested Cells with Complex Karyotypes
Published on: April 13, 2018
Effect of chromosomal instability on the mutation-selection balance in unicellular populations
Eran Itan1, Emmanuel Tannenbaum
1Department of Chemistry, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Be'er-Sheva, Israel.
Abstract:
This paper develops a mathematical model describing the evolutionary dynamics of a unicellular, asexually replicating population exhibiting chromosomal instability. Chromosomal instability is a form of genetic instability characterized by the gain or loss of entire chromosomes during cell division. We assume that the cellular genome is divided into several homologous groups of chromosomes, and that a single functional chromosome per homologous group is required for the cell to have the wild-type fitness. If the fitness is unaffected by the total number of chromosomes in the cell, our model is analytically solvable, and yields a mean fitness at mutation-selection balance that is identical to the mean fitness when there is no chromosomal instability. If this assumption is relaxed and the total number of chromosomes in the cell is not allowed to increase without bound, then chromosomal instability leads to a reduction in mean fitness. The results of this paper provide a useful baseline that can inform both future theoretial and experimental studies of chromosomal instability.
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