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Science 10 August 2007:
Vol. 317. no. 5839, pp. 813 - 815
DOI: 10.1126/science.1142284
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Reports

Adaptive Mutations in Bacteria: High Rate and Small Effects

Lília Perfeito,1 Lisete Fernandes,1,2 Catarina Mota,1 Isabel Gordo1*

Evolution by natural selection is driven by the continuous generation of adaptive mutations. We measured the genomic mutation rate that generates beneficial mutations and their effects on fitness in Escherichia coli under conditions in which the effect of competition between lineages carrying different beneficial mutations is minimized. We found a rate on the order of 10–5 per genome per generation, which is 1000 times as high as previous estimates, and a mean selective advantage of 1%. Such a high rate of adaptive evolution has implications for the evolution of antibiotic resistance and pathogenicity.

1 Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência, Rua da Quinta Grande, number 6, 2780-156 Oeiras, Portugal.
2 Escola Superior de Tecnologia da Saúde de Lisboa, Lisboa, Portugal.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: igordo{at}igc.gulbenkian.pt

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THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Comparison of the Complete Genome Sequences of Bifidobacterium animalis subsp. lactis DSM 10140 and Bl-04.
R. Barrangou, E. P. Briczinski, L. L. Traeger, J. R. Loquasto, M. Richards, P. Horvath, A.-C. Coute-Monvoisin, G. Leyer, S. Rendulic, J. L. Steele, et al. (2009)
J. Bacteriol. 191, 4144-4151
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Clonal Interference, Multiple Mutations and Adaptation in Large Asexual Populations.
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Genetics 180, 2163-2173
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Surviving the Bottleneck: Transmission Mutants and the Evolution of Microbial Populations.
A. Handel and M. R. Bennett (2008)
Genetics 180, 2193-2200
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Selective Sweep at a Quantitative Trait Locus in the Presence of Background Genetic Variation.
L.-M. Chevin and F. Hospital (2008)
Genetics 180, 1645-1660
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Hitchhiking Both Ways: Effect of Two Interfering Selective Sweeps on Linked Neutral Variation.
L.-M. Chevin, S. Billiard, and F. Hospital (2008)
Genetics 180, 301-316
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How much of protein sequence space has been explored by life on Earth?.
D. T.F Dryden, A. R Thomson, and J. H White (2008)
J R Soc Interface 5, 953-956
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Synergistic Fitness Interactions and a High Frequency of Beneficial Changes Among Mutations Accumulated Under Relaxed Selection in Saccharomyces cerevisiae.
W. J. Dickinson (2008)
Genetics 178, 1571-1578
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The effect of spatial structure on adaptation in Escherichia coli.
L. Perfeito, M. I. Pereira, P. R.A Campos, and I. Gordo (2008)
Biol Lett 4, 57-59
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Clonal interference in large populations.
S.-C. Park and J. Krug (2007)
PNAS 104, 18135-18140
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