Recombination Speeds Adaptation by Reducing Competition between Beneficial Mutations in Populations of Escherichia coli
Identification of the selective forces contributing to the origin and maintenance of sex is a fundamental problem in biology. The Fisher–Muller model proposes that sex is advantageous because it allows beneficial mutations that arise in different lineages to recombine, thereby reducing clonal interf...
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| Format: | Online |
| Language: | English |
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Public Library of Science
2007
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| Online Access: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1950772/ |
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pubmed-1950772 |
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pubmed-19507722007-09-22 Recombination Speeds Adaptation by Reducing Competition between Beneficial Mutations in Populations of Escherichia coli Cooper, Tim F Research Article Identification of the selective forces contributing to the origin and maintenance of sex is a fundamental problem in biology. The Fisher–Muller model proposes that sex is advantageous because it allows beneficial mutations that arise in different lineages to recombine, thereby reducing clonal interference and speeding adaptation. I used the F plasmid to mediate recombination in the bacterium Escherichia coli and measured its effect on adaptation at high and low mutation rates. Recombination increased the rate of adaptation ∼3-fold more in the high mutation rate treatment, where beneficial mutations had to compete for fixation. Sequencing of candidate loci revealed the presence of a beneficial mutation in six high mutation rate lines. In the absence of recombination, this mutation took longer to fix and, over the course of its substitution, conferred a reduced competitive advantage, indicating interference between competing beneficial mutations. Together, these results provide experimental support for the Fisher–Muller model and demonstrate that plasmid-mediated gene transfer can accelerate bacterial adaptation. Public Library of Science 2007-09 2007-08-21 /pmc/articles/PMC1950772/ /pubmed/17713986 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.0050225 Text en © 2007 Tim F. Cooper. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited. |
| repository_type |
Open Access Journal |
| institution_category |
Foreign Institution |
| institution |
US National Center for Biotechnology Information |
| building |
NCBI PubMed |
| collection |
Online Access |
| language |
English |
| format |
Online |
| author |
Cooper, Tim F |
| spellingShingle |
Cooper, Tim F Recombination Speeds Adaptation by Reducing Competition between Beneficial Mutations in Populations of Escherichia coli |
| author_facet |
Cooper, Tim F |
| author_sort |
Cooper, Tim F |
| title |
Recombination Speeds Adaptation by Reducing Competition between Beneficial Mutations in Populations of Escherichia coli
|
| title_short |
Recombination Speeds Adaptation by Reducing Competition between Beneficial Mutations in Populations of Escherichia coli
|
| title_full |
Recombination Speeds Adaptation by Reducing Competition between Beneficial Mutations in Populations of Escherichia coli
|
| title_fullStr |
Recombination Speeds Adaptation by Reducing Competition between Beneficial Mutations in Populations of Escherichia coli
|
| title_full_unstemmed |
Recombination Speeds Adaptation by Reducing Competition between Beneficial Mutations in Populations of Escherichia coli
|
| title_sort |
recombination speeds adaptation by reducing competition between beneficial mutations in populations of escherichia coli |
| description |
Identification of the selective forces contributing to the origin and maintenance of sex is a fundamental problem in biology. The Fisher–Muller model proposes that sex is advantageous because it allows beneficial mutations that arise in different lineages to recombine, thereby reducing clonal interference and speeding adaptation. I used the F plasmid to mediate recombination in the bacterium Escherichia coli and measured its effect on adaptation at high and low mutation rates. Recombination increased the rate of adaptation ∼3-fold more in the high mutation rate treatment, where beneficial mutations had to compete for fixation. Sequencing of candidate loci revealed the presence of a beneficial mutation in six high mutation rate lines. In the absence of recombination, this mutation took longer to fix and, over the course of its substitution, conferred a reduced competitive advantage, indicating interference between competing beneficial mutations. Together, these results provide experimental support for the Fisher–Muller model and demonstrate that plasmid-mediated gene transfer can accelerate bacterial adaptation. |
| publisher |
Public Library of Science |
| publishDate |
2007 |
| url |
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1950772/ |
| _version_ |
1611399241837576192 |