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The rule of declining adaptability in microbial evolution experiments
One of the most recurrent observations after two decades of microbial evolution experiments regards the dynamics of fitness change. In a given environment, low-fitness genotypes are recurrently observed to adapt faster than their more fit counterparts. Since adaptation is the main macroscopic outcom...
Autores principales: | , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Frontiers Media S.A.
2015
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Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4356158/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25815007 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fgene.2015.00099 |
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author | Couce, Alejandro Tenaillon, Olivier A. |
author_facet | Couce, Alejandro Tenaillon, Olivier A. |
author_sort | Couce, Alejandro |
collection | PubMed |
description | One of the most recurrent observations after two decades of microbial evolution experiments regards the dynamics of fitness change. In a given environment, low-fitness genotypes are recurrently observed to adapt faster than their more fit counterparts. Since adaptation is the main macroscopic outcome of Darwinian evolution, studying its patterns of change could potentially provide insight into key issues of evolutionary theory, from fixation dynamics to the genetic architecture of organisms. Here, we re-analyze several published datasets from experimental evolution with microbes and show that, despite large differences in the origin of the data, a pattern of inverse dependence of adaptability with fitness clearly emerges. In quantitative terms, it is remarkable to observe little if any degree of idiosyncrasy across systems as diverse as virus, bacteria and yeast. The universality of this phenomenon suggests that its emergence might be understood from general principles, giving rise to the exciting prospect that evolution might be statistically predictable at the macroscopic level. We discuss these possibilities in the light of the various theories of adaptation that have been proposed and delineate future directions of research. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-4356158 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2015 |
publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-43561582015-03-26 The rule of declining adaptability in microbial evolution experiments Couce, Alejandro Tenaillon, Olivier A. Front Genet Genetics One of the most recurrent observations after two decades of microbial evolution experiments regards the dynamics of fitness change. In a given environment, low-fitness genotypes are recurrently observed to adapt faster than their more fit counterparts. Since adaptation is the main macroscopic outcome of Darwinian evolution, studying its patterns of change could potentially provide insight into key issues of evolutionary theory, from fixation dynamics to the genetic architecture of organisms. Here, we re-analyze several published datasets from experimental evolution with microbes and show that, despite large differences in the origin of the data, a pattern of inverse dependence of adaptability with fitness clearly emerges. In quantitative terms, it is remarkable to observe little if any degree of idiosyncrasy across systems as diverse as virus, bacteria and yeast. The universality of this phenomenon suggests that its emergence might be understood from general principles, giving rise to the exciting prospect that evolution might be statistically predictable at the macroscopic level. We discuss these possibilities in the light of the various theories of adaptation that have been proposed and delineate future directions of research. Frontiers Media S.A. 2015-03-11 /pmc/articles/PMC4356158/ /pubmed/25815007 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fgene.2015.00099 Text en Copyright © 2015 Couce and Tenaillon. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms. |
spellingShingle | Genetics Couce, Alejandro Tenaillon, Olivier A. The rule of declining adaptability in microbial evolution experiments |
title | The rule of declining adaptability in microbial evolution experiments |
title_full | The rule of declining adaptability in microbial evolution experiments |
title_fullStr | The rule of declining adaptability in microbial evolution experiments |
title_full_unstemmed | The rule of declining adaptability in microbial evolution experiments |
title_short | The rule of declining adaptability in microbial evolution experiments |
title_sort | rule of declining adaptability in microbial evolution experiments |
topic | Genetics |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4356158/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25815007 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fgene.2015.00099 |
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