A direct experimental test of Ohno's hypothesis

Gene duplication drives evolution by providing raw material for proteins with novel functions. An influential hypothesis by Ohno (1970) posits that gene duplication helps genes tolerate new mutations and thus facilitates the evolution of new phenotypes. Competing hypotheses argue that deleterious mutations will usually inactivate gene duplicates too rapidly for Ohno's hypothesis to work. We experimentally tested Ohno's hypothesis by evolving one or exactly two copies of a gene encoding a fluorescent protein in Escherichia coli through several rounds of mutation and selection. We analyzed the genotypic and phenotypic evolutionary dynamics of the evolving populations through high-throughput DNA sequencing, biochemical assays, and engineering of selected variants. In support of Ohno's hypothesis, populations carrying two gene copies displayed higher mutational robustness than those carrying a single gene copy. Consequently, the double-copy populations experienced relaxed purifying selection, evolved higher phenotypic and genetic diversity, carried more mutations and accumulated combinations of key beneficial mutations earlier. However, their phenotypic evolution was not accelerated, possibly because one gene copy rapidly became inactivated by deleterious mutations. Our work provides an experimental platform to test models of evolution by gene duplication, and it supports alternatives to Ohno's hypothesis that point to the importance of gene dosage.