Epistasis and evolution: recent advances and an outlook for prediction

Area of Science:

• Evolutionary biology
• Genetics
• Molecular biology

Background:

• Mutation effects change over evolutionary time due to epistasis.
• Epistatic interactions influence organismal adaptability and robustness.
• Understanding these shifts is crucial for predicting evolutionary trajectories.

Purpose of the Study:

• To review recent advances in measuring, modeling, and predicting epistasis.
• To focus on global epistasis patterns in microbial cells and single proteins.
• To highlight the potential of these patterns for predicting evolution.

Main Methods:

• Review of recent literature on epistasis measurement and modeling.
• Analysis of data from microbial cells and single proteins.
• Identification of simple global epistasis patterns.

Main Results:

• Epistatic interactions significantly alter mutation effects during evolution.
• Global epistasis patterns emerge, simplifying prediction.
• These patterns are observable in both microbial and protein systems.

Conclusions:

• Predicting evolutionary trajectories is becoming more feasible.
• Simple global epistasis patterns offer a promising framework for future research.
• Understanding epistasis is key to forecasting evolutionary adaptation and robustness.