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Related Concept Videos

Mismatch Repair01:20

Mismatch Repair

Organisms are capable of detecting and fixing nucleotide mismatches that occur during DNA replication. This sophisticated process requires identifying the new strand and replacing the erroneous bases with correct nucleotides. Mismatch repair is coordinated by many proteins in both prokaryotes and eukaryotes.
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Mutations in Microorganisms01:18

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DNA replication is a well-evolved process that copies millions of base pairs with high fidelity during each cell division. Occasionally a wrong base or a long stretch of wrong bases may get added to the daughter strands. If the errors are left unchecked, cells might accumulate several mutations that might endanger their  survival. Therefore, the copying errors are checked and repaired at three levels.

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Updated: Jun 27, 2026

Rapid Identification of Chemical Genetic Interactions in Saccharomyces cerevisiae
12:13

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Published on: April 5, 2015

Constraints on adaptive loss-of-function mutations during microbial metabolic interactions.

James B McKinlay1, Ying-Chih Chuang1, Olivia F Schakel1

  • 1Department of Biology, Indiana University, Bloomington 47405, United States.

Current Opinion in Microbiology
|June 25, 2026
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Adaptive loss-of-function (LOF) mutations in microbes are not always beneficial during metabolic interactions. Resource availability, gene regulation, and environmental factors impose constraints, potentially leading to non-adaptive LOF mutants.

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Area of Science:

  • Microbiology
  • Evolutionary Biology
  • Systems Biology

Background:

  • Adaptive loss-of-function (LOF) mutations are hypothesized to be common in microbial metabolic interactions like cross-feeding.
  • This is based on the idea that microbes can avoid the cost of maintaining a gene if its product is supplied by a neighbor.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To review constraints on the adaptive benefits of LOF mutations during microbial metabolic interactions.
  • To provide a nuanced understanding of LOF mutation dynamics in response to resource availability and environmental factors.

Main Methods:

  • Literature review focusing on three key constraints: resource availability effects on growth kinetics, gene regulation, and broader cell physiology.
  • Analysis of how environmental factors interact with resource availability and LOF mutations.

Main Results:

  • LOF mutants are not consistently enriched even when resources are available from producer cells.
  • Three main constraints limit the adaptive benefits of LOF mutations: resource availability impacting growth kinetics and gene regulation, and combined effects of resource availability, LOF mutations, and environmental factors on cell physiology.

Conclusions:

  • The benefits of adaptive LOF mutations in metabolic interactions are constrained by multiple factors.
  • These constraints challenge the simple assumption of LOF enrichment and suggest that non-adaptive LOF mutants can arise under certain conditions.