Work

Adaptive mutation: General mutagenesis is not a programmed response to stress but results from rare coamplification of dinB with lac

Year: 2003

Type: article

Abstract: In a particular genetic system, selection stimulates reversion of a lac mutation and causes genome-wide mutagenesis (adaptive mutation). Selection allows rare plated cells with a duplication of the leaky lac allele to initiate clones within which further lac amplification improves growth rate. Growth and amplification add mutational targets to each clone and thereby increase the likelihood of reversion. We suggest that general mutagenesis occurs only in clones whose lac amplification includes the nearby dinB+ gene (for error-prone DNA polymerase IV). Thus mutagenesis is not a programmed response to stress but a side effect of amplification in a few clones; it is not central to the effect of selection on reversion.

Source: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1735464100

Authors: E. Susan Slechta, Kim L. Bunny, Elisabeth Kugelberg, Eric Kofoid, Dan I. Andersson, John R. Roth

Institutions: Karolinska Institutet, University of California, Davis

Language: English

Topic: Evolution and Genetic Dynamics

Subfield: Genetics

Field: Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology

Domain: Life Sciences

Open Access status: green

Funders: Vetenskapsrådet, National Institutes of Health, National Institute of General Medical Sciences

Awards: G5895551391, G705326951