Avoiding dangerous missense: thermophiles display especially low mutation rates.

Rates of spontaneous mutation have been estimated under optimal growth conditions for a variety of DNA-based microbes, including viruses, bacteria, and eukaryotes. When expressed as genomic mutation rates, most of the values were in the vicinity of 0.003-0.004 with a range of less than two-fold. Bec...

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Autor principal: John W Drake
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Publicado: Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2009
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Acceso en línea:https://doaj.org/article/748cf4662e9842ac9fb7a89cfb238375
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spelling oai:doaj.org-article:748cf4662e9842ac9fb7a89cfb2383752021-11-25T05:53:21ZAvoiding dangerous missense: thermophiles display especially low mutation rates.1553-73901553-740410.1371/journal.pgen.1000520https://doaj.org/article/748cf4662e9842ac9fb7a89cfb2383752009-06-01T00:00:00Zhttps://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/pmid/19543367/?tool=EBIhttps://doaj.org/toc/1553-7390https://doaj.org/toc/1553-7404Rates of spontaneous mutation have been estimated under optimal growth conditions for a variety of DNA-based microbes, including viruses, bacteria, and eukaryotes. When expressed as genomic mutation rates, most of the values were in the vicinity of 0.003-0.004 with a range of less than two-fold. Because the genome sizes varied by roughly 10(4)-fold, the mutation rates per average base pair varied inversely by a similar factor. Even though the commonality of the observed genomic rates remains unexplained, it implies that mutation rates in unstressed microbes reach values that can be finely tuned by evolution. An insight originating in the 1920s and maturing in the 1960s proposed that the genomic mutation rate would reflect a balance between the deleterious effect of the average mutation and the cost of further reducing the mutation rate. If this view is correct, then increasing the deleterious impact of the average mutation should be countered by reducing the genomic mutation rate. It is a common observation that many neutral or nearly neutral mutations become strongly deleterious at higher temperatures, in which case they are called temperature-sensitive mutations. Recently, the kinds and rates of spontaneous mutations were described for two microbial thermophiles, a bacterium and an archaeon. Using an updated method to extrapolate from mutation-reporter genes to whole genomes reveals that the rate of base substitutions is substantially lower in these two thermophiles than in mesophiles. This result provides the first experimental support for the concept of an evolved balance between the total genomic impact of mutations and the cost of further reducing the basal mutation rate.John W DrakePublic Library of Science (PLoS)articleGeneticsQH426-470ENPLoS Genetics, Vol 5, Iss 6, p e1000520 (2009)
institution DOAJ
collection DOAJ
language EN
topic Genetics
QH426-470
spellingShingle Genetics
QH426-470
John W Drake
Avoiding dangerous missense: thermophiles display especially low mutation rates.
description Rates of spontaneous mutation have been estimated under optimal growth conditions for a variety of DNA-based microbes, including viruses, bacteria, and eukaryotes. When expressed as genomic mutation rates, most of the values were in the vicinity of 0.003-0.004 with a range of less than two-fold. Because the genome sizes varied by roughly 10(4)-fold, the mutation rates per average base pair varied inversely by a similar factor. Even though the commonality of the observed genomic rates remains unexplained, it implies that mutation rates in unstressed microbes reach values that can be finely tuned by evolution. An insight originating in the 1920s and maturing in the 1960s proposed that the genomic mutation rate would reflect a balance between the deleterious effect of the average mutation and the cost of further reducing the mutation rate. If this view is correct, then increasing the deleterious impact of the average mutation should be countered by reducing the genomic mutation rate. It is a common observation that many neutral or nearly neutral mutations become strongly deleterious at higher temperatures, in which case they are called temperature-sensitive mutations. Recently, the kinds and rates of spontaneous mutations were described for two microbial thermophiles, a bacterium and an archaeon. Using an updated method to extrapolate from mutation-reporter genes to whole genomes reveals that the rate of base substitutions is substantially lower in these two thermophiles than in mesophiles. This result provides the first experimental support for the concept of an evolved balance between the total genomic impact of mutations and the cost of further reducing the basal mutation rate.
format article
author John W Drake
author_facet John W Drake
author_sort John W Drake
title Avoiding dangerous missense: thermophiles display especially low mutation rates.
title_short Avoiding dangerous missense: thermophiles display especially low mutation rates.
title_full Avoiding dangerous missense: thermophiles display especially low mutation rates.
title_fullStr Avoiding dangerous missense: thermophiles display especially low mutation rates.
title_full_unstemmed Avoiding dangerous missense: thermophiles display especially low mutation rates.
title_sort avoiding dangerous missense: thermophiles display especially low mutation rates.
publisher Public Library of Science (PLoS)
publishDate 2009
url https://doaj.org/article/748cf4662e9842ac9fb7a89cfb238375
work_keys_str_mv AT johnwdrake avoidingdangerousmissensethermophilesdisplayespeciallylowmutationrates
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