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Originally published in Science Express on 24 May 2007
Science 6 July 2007:
Vol. 317. no. 5834, pp. 118 - 121
DOI: 10.1126/science.1140247
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Reports

Genetic Properties Influencing the Evolvability of Gene Expression

Christian R. Landry,1*{dagger} Bernardo Lemos,1* Scott A. Rifkin,1{ddagger} W. J. Dickinson,2 Daniel L. Hartl1

Identifying the properties of gene networks that influence their evolution is a fundamental research goal. However, modes of evolution cannot be inferred solely from the distribution of natural variation, because selection interacts with demography and mutation rates to shape polymorphism and divergence. We estimated the effects of naturally occurring mutations on gene expression while minimizing the effect of natural selection. We demonstrate that sensitivity of gene expression to mutations increases with both increasing trans-mutational target size and the presence of a TATA box. Genes with greater sensitivity to mutations are also more sensitive to systematic environmental perturbations and stochastic noise. These results provide a mechanistic basis for gene expression evolvability that can serve as a foundation for realistic models of regulatory evolution.

1 Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, 16 Divinity Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA.
2 Department of Biology, University of Utah, 257 South 1400 East, Salt Lake City, UT 84112, USA.

{dagger} Present address: Département de Biochimie, Université de Montréal, 2900 Boulevard Edouard-Montpetit, Montréal, QC H3T 1J4, Canada.

{ddagger} Present address: Department of Biology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.

* These authors contributed equally to this work. To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: clandry{at}post.harvard.edu (C.R.L.); blemos{at}oeb.harvard.edu (B.L.)

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