High mutation rates limit evolutionary adaptation in Escherichia coli.

Abstract excerpt

Mutation is fundamental to evolution, because it generates the genetic variation on which selection can act. In nature, genetic changes often increase the mutation rate in systems that range from viruses and bacteria to human tumors. Such an increase promotes the accumulation of frequent deleterious or neutral alleles, but it can also increase the chances that a population acquires rare beneficial alleles. Here,...

Topics

• Adaptation, Physiological
• Algorithms
• Escherichia coli
• Evolution, Molecular
• Genetic Fitness
• Genetic Variation
• Genetics, Population
• Models, Genetic
• Mutation Rate
• Selection, Genetic
• Whole Genome Sequencing