Adaptive synonymous mutations in an experimentally evolved Pseudomonas fluorescens population

Conventional wisdom holds that synonymous mutations, nucleotide changes that do not alter the encoded amino acid, have no detectable effect on phenotype or fitness. However, a growing body of evidence from both comparative and experimental studies suggests otherwise. Synonymous mutations have been s...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nature communications 2014-06, Vol.5 (1), p.4076-4076, Article 4076
Main Authors: Bailey, Susan F., Hinz, Aaron, Kassen, Rees
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
38/44
38/5
631/181/457
631/208/737
631/326/41/2529
ATP-Binding Cassette Transporters - genetics
Bacterial Proteins - genetics
Base Sequence
Evolution, Molecular
Host Factor 1 Protein - genetics
Humanities and Social Sciences
Maltose-Binding Proteins - genetics
Molecular Sequence Data
multidisciplinary
Porins - genetics
Pseudomonas fluorescens - genetics
Science
Science (multidisciplinary)
Selection, Genetic
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Summary:Conventional wisdom holds that synonymous mutations, nucleotide changes that do not alter the encoded amino acid, have no detectable effect on phenotype or fitness. However, a growing body of evidence from both comparative and experimental studies suggests otherwise. Synonymous mutations have been shown to impact gene expression, protein folding and fitness, however, direct evidence that they can be positively selected, and so contribute to adaptation, is lacking. Here we report the recovery of two beneficial synonymous single base pair changes that arose spontaneously and independently in an experimentally evolved population of Pseudomonas fluorescens. We show experimentally that these mutations increase fitness by an amount comparable to non-synonymous mutations and that the fitness increases stem from increased gene expression. These results provide unequivocal evidence that synonymous mutations can drive adaptive evolution and suggest that this class of mutation may be underappreciated as a cause of adaptation and evolutionary dynamics. Synonymous mutations, nucleotide changes that do not alter the encoded amino acid, are usually seen not to have an effect on organism survival. Here, Bailey et al. show that two synonymous mutations in Pseudomonas fluorescens had a beneficial effect and acted via increased gene expression.
ISSN:2041-1723
2041-1723
DOI:10.1038/ncomms5076