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Mutation-Driven Parallel Evolution during Viral Adaptation.

Andrew M Sackman1, Lindsey W McGee1, Anneliese J Morrison1

  • 1Department of Biological Science, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL.

Molecular Biology and Evolution
|October 14, 2017
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

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Convergent evolution in bacteriophages is largely driven by mutation biases, not just selection for optimal solutions. This leads to frequent parallel fixation of suboptimal mutations across different phage genotypes.

Area of Science:

  • Evolutionary Biology
  • Genetics
  • Molecular Biology

Background:

  • Convergent evolution is observed across biological scales, but the drivers (selection vs. mutation bias) are debated.
  • Understanding these drivers is crucial for explaining evolutionary patterns and predicting adaptation.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate whether parallel evolutionary changes in bacteriophages are driven by selection favoring optimal solutions or by mutational biases.
  • To analyze adaptation at multiple molecular levels (gene, protein, amino acid, nucleotide) within and across different phage genotypes.

Main Methods:

  • Generated 20 replicate bacteriophage lineages from each of four genotypes.
  • Applied identical selective conditions to all lineages.
  • Analyzed parallel changes in mutational effect distributions, gene, protein, amino acid, and nucleotide sequences.
Keywords:
convergencedistribution of beneficial fitness effectsexperimental evolutiongenetics of adaptationmutation-driven evolutionparallel evolution

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Main Results:

  • High levels of parallel adaptation were observed at all molecular levels, both within and among phage genotypes.
  • The most common beneficial mutation fixed frequently (7/20 replicates on average).
  • Mutations with the smallest beneficial effect fixed as often as those with the largest, contradicting selection-driven optimization.

Conclusions:

  • Bacteriophage adaptation appears largely mutation-driven, with biases in mutation supply influencing parallel fixation.
  • Convergent evolution may frequently involve the fixation of suboptimal mutations due to mutational biases, rather than solely the repeated discovery of optimal solutions by selection.