Article
Darwinian evolution can follow only very few mutational paths to fitter proteins.
Science (New York, N.Y.) - 7 Apr 2006
Weinreich Daniel M, Delaney Nigel F, Depristo Mark A, Hartl Daniel L
Abstract excerpt
Five point mutations in a particular beta-lactamase allele jointly increase bacterial resistance to a clinically important antibiotic by a factor of approximately 100,000. In principle, evolution to this high-resistance beta-lactamase might follow any of the 120 mutational trajectories linking these alleles. However, we demonstrate that 102 trajectories are inaccessible to Darwinian selection and that many of the...
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