Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.

Science 17 March 2006:
Vol. 311. no. 5767, pp. 1615 - 1617
DOI: 10.1126/science.1122469
Prev | Table of Contents | Next

Reports

An Equivalence Principle for the Incorporation of Favorable Mutations in Asexual Populations

Matthew Hegreness,1,2* Noam Shoresh,1* Daniel Hartl,2 Roy Kishony1,3{dagger}

Rapid evolution of asexual populations, such as that of cancer cells or of microorganisms developing drug resistance, can include the simultaneous spread of distinct beneficial mutations. We demonstrate that evolution in such cases is driven by the fitness effects and appearance times of only a small minority of favorable mutations. The complexity of the mutation-selection process is thereby greatly reduced, and much of the evolutionary dynamics can be encapsulated in two parameters—an effective selection coefficient and effective rate of beneficial mutations. We confirm this theoretical finding and estimate the effective parameters for evolving populations of fluorescently labeled Escherichia coli. The effective parameters constitute a simple description and provide a natural standard for comparing adaptation between species and across environments.

1 Bauer Center for Genomics Research, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA.
2 Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA.
3 Department of Systems Biology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA.

* These authors contributed equally to this work.

{dagger} To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: roy_kishony{at}hms.harvard.edu

Read the Full Text


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
The dynamics of adaptation on correlated fitness landscapes.
S. Kryazhimskiy, G. Tkacik, and J. B. Plotkin (2009)
PNAS 106, 18638-18643
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Genome-wide Mutational Diversity in an Evolving Population of Escherichia coli.
J.E. Barrick and R.E. Lenski (2009)
Cold Spring Harb Symp Quant Biol
   Abstract »    PDF »
The Fixation Probability of Rare Mutators in Finite Asexual Populations.
C. S. Wylie, C.-M. Ghim, D. Kessler, and H. Levine (2009)
Genetics 181, 1595-1612
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Genomewide Patterns of Substitution in Adaptively Evolving Populations of the RNA Bacteriophage MS2.
A. J. Betancourt (2009)
Genetics 181, 1535-1544
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Clonal Interference, Multiple Mutations and Adaptation in Large Asexual Populations.
C. A. Fogle, J. L. Nagle, and M. M. Desai (2008)
Genetics 180, 2163-2173
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Accelerated evolution of resistance in multidrug environments.
M. Hegreness, N. Shoresh, D. Damian, D. Hartl, and R. Kishony (2008)
PNAS 105, 13977-13981
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Impact of Individual Mutations on Increased Fitness in Adaptively Evolved Strains of Escherichia coli.
M. K. Applebee, M. J. Herrgard, and B. O. Palsson (2008)
J. Bacteriol. 190, 5087-5094
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Genetic drift at expanding frontiers promotes gene segregation.
O. Hallatschek, P. Hersen, S. Ramanathan, and D. R. Nelson (2007)
PNAS 104, 19926-19930
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Analytical Description of Mutational Effects in Competing Asexual Populations.
D. Pinkel (2007)
Genetics 177, 2135-2149
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Complex Genetic Changes in Strains of Saccharomyces cerevisiae Derived by Selection in the Laboratory.
J. T. Witten, C. T. L. Chen, and B. A. Cohen (2007)
Genetics 177, 449-456
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Varying environments can speed up evolution.
N. Kashtan, E. Noor, and U. Alon (2007)
PNAS 104, 13711-13716
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Adaptive Mutations in Bacteria: High Rate and Small Effects.
L. Perfeito, L. Fernandes, C. Mota, and I. Gordo (2007)
Science 317, 813-815
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Complete genetic linkage can subvert natural selection.
P. J. Gerrish, A. Colato, A. S. Perelson, and P. D. Sniegowski (2007)
PNAS 104, 6266-6271
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
The Distribution of Beneficial Mutant Effects Under Strong Selection.
R. D. H. Barrett, L. K. M'Gonigle, and S. P. Otto (2006)
Genetics 174, 2071-2079
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Parallel Changes in Global Protein Profiles During Long-Term Experimental Evolution in Escherichia coli.
L. Pelosi, L. Kuhn, D. Guetta, J. Garin, J. Geiselmann, R. E. Lenski, and D. Schneider (2006)
Genetics 173, 1851-1869
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
H. J. Muller and the "competition hoax"..
J. F. Crow (2006)
Genetics 173, 511-514
   Full Text »    PDF »


To Advertise     Find Products

Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)