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PMID: 10643083 Published · ppublish English Journal Article Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

The approach to mutation-selection balance in an infinite asexual population, and the evolution of mutation rates.

Proceedings. Biological sciences ·Vol. 266 ·No. 1436 ·1999-12-07 ·Pages 2389-97

Johnson T

Abstract

A method is described for calculating the dynamics of the distribution of fitness in an infinite asexual population which is subject to unconditionally deleterious mutations with independent effects. This method is applied to the problem of calculating the frequency of a mutator subpopulation, at equilibrium between mutation and indirect selection due to association with deleterious mutations. Many mutator alleles are produced by loss-of-function mutations in polymerase or mismatch repair genes. Previous calculations have ignored the fact that this creates a flux of higher fitness individuals into the mutator subpopulation. This flux raises the mean fitness of the mutator subpopulation, and when this factor is taken into account, the frequency of the mutator may be more than an order of magnitude greater than recent theoretical work has suggested.

MeSH Terms
Alleles Biological Evolution Models, Theoretical Mutation Reproduction, Asexual/genetics Selection, Genetic
Authors & Affiliations
1 authors, click to expand affiliations / ORCID
Johnson T
Institute of Cell, Animal and Population Biology, University of Edinburgh, UK. toby.johnson@ed.ac.uk
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35 references, click to expand
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Article Info
Journal
Proceedings. Biological sciences
Abbr.
Proc Biol Sci
ISSN
0962-8452
DOI
10.1098/rspb.1999.0936
Email
toby.johnson@ed.ac.uk
Published
1999-12-07
Pages
2389-97
Language
English
Region
England
NLM ID
101245157
PMCID
PMC1690461
Subset
IM
External Links
PubMed source DOI: 10.1098/rspb.1999.0936 PMC Full Text View journal details
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