Mutation bias interacts with composition bias to influence adaptive evolution

PLoS Comput Biol. 2020 Sep 28;16(9):e1008296. doi: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1008296. eCollection 2020 Sep.

Abstract

Mutation is a biased stochastic process, with some types of mutations occurring more frequently than others. Previous work has used synthetic genotype-phenotype landscapes to study how such mutation bias affects adaptive evolution. Here, we consider 746 empirical genotype-phenotype landscapes, each of which describes the binding affinity of target DNA sequences to a transcription factor, to study the influence of mutation bias on adaptive evolution of increased binding affinity. By using empirical genotype-phenotype landscapes, we need to make only few assumptions about landscape topography and about the DNA sequences that each landscape contains. The latter is particularly important because the set of sequences that a landscape contains determines the types of mutations that can occur along a mutational path to an adaptive peak. That is, landscapes can exhibit a composition bias-a statistical enrichment of a particular type of mutation relative to a null expectation, throughout an entire landscape or along particular mutational paths-that is independent of any bias in the mutation process. Our results reveal the way in which composition bias interacts with biases in the mutation process under different population genetic conditions, and how such interaction impacts fundamental properties of adaptive evolution, such as its predictability, as well as the evolution of genetic diversity and mutational robustness.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Computational Biology
  • DNA, Bacterial / chemistry
  • DNA, Bacterial / genetics
  • DNA, Bacterial / metabolism
  • Evolution, Molecular*
  • Genotype
  • Models, Genetic*
  • Mutation* / genetics
  • Mutation* / physiology
  • Phenotype
  • Protein Binding / genetics
  • Transcription Factors / chemistry
  • Transcription Factors / genetics
  • Transcription Factors / metabolism

Substances

  • DNA, Bacterial
  • Transcription Factors

Grants and funding

J.L.P. acknowledges support from Swiss National Science Foundation (Grant No. PP00P3_170604) http://www.snf.ch/en/Pages/default.aspx. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.