scholarly journals Direct estimation of the spontaneous mutation rate by short-term mutation accumulation lines in Chironomus riparius

2017 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 86-92 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ann-Marie Oppold ◽  
Markus Pfenninger
2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (7) ◽  
pp. 1829-1837 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marc Krasovec ◽  
Sophie Sanchez-Brosseau ◽  
Gwenael Piganeau

Abstract Mutations are the origin of genetic diversity, and the mutation rate is a fundamental parameter to understand all aspects of molecular evolution. The combination of mutation–accumulation experiments and high-throughput sequencing enabled the estimation of mutation rates in most model organisms, but several major eukaryotic lineages remain unexplored. Here, we report the first estimation of the spontaneous mutation rate in a model unicellular eukaryote from the Stramenopile kingdom, the diatom Phaeodactylum tricornutum (strain RCC2967). We sequenced 36 mutation accumulation lines for an average of 181 generations per line and identified 156 de novo mutations. The base substitution mutation rate per site per generation is μbs = 4.77 × 10−10 and the insertion–deletion mutation rate is μid = 1.58 × 10−11. The mutation rate varies as a function of the nucleotide context and is biased toward an excess of mutations from GC to AT, consistent with previous observations in other species. Interestingly, the mutation rates between the genomes of organelles and the nucleus differ, with a significantly higher mutation rate in the mitochondria. This confirms previous claims based on indirect estimations of the mutation rate in mitochondria of photosynthetic eukaryotes that acquired their plastid through a secondary endosymbiosis. This novel estimate enables us to infer the effective population size of P. tricornutum to be Ne∼8.72 × 106.


2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ann-Marie Oppold ◽  
Markus Pfenninger

AbstractMutations are the ultimate basis of evolution, yet their occurrence rate is known only for few species. We directly estimated the spontaneous mutation rate and the mutational spectrum in the non-biting midge C. riparius with a new approach. Individuals from ten mutation accumulation lines over five generations were deep genome sequenced to count de novo mutations (DNMs) that were not present in a pool of F1 individuals, representing parental genotypes. We identified 51 new single site mutations of which 25 were insertions or deletions and 26 single point mutations. This shift in the mutational spectrum compared to other organisms was explained by the high A/T content of the species. We estimated a haploid mutation rate of 2.1 x 10−9 (95% confidence interval: 1.4 x 10−9 – 3.1 x 10−9) which is in the range of recent estimates for other insects and supports the drift barrier hypothesis. We show that accurate mutation rate estimation from a high number of observed mutations is feasible with moderate effort even for non-model species.


Genetics ◽  
1984 ◽  
Vol 106 (4) ◽  
pp. 729-734
Author(s):  
A L Kahler ◽  
R W Allard ◽  
R D Miller

ABSTRACT Spontaneous mutation rates were estimated by assaying 84,126 seedlings of a highly homozygous barley line (isogenic line 2025) for five enzyme loci. No mutants were observed in 841,260 allele replications. This result excludes, at probability level 0.95, a spontaneous mutation rate larger than 3.56 x 10-6/locus/gamete/generation for these enzyme loci. Isogenic line 2025 also was scored for mutants at four loci governing morphological variants. No mutants were observed in 3,386,850 allele replications which indicates that the upper bound for the mutation rate for these loci is 8.85 x 10-7. It was concluded that, even though spontaneous mutation has been important in creating variability in the barley species at the loci scored, the rate is too low to have much affect on the short-term dynamics of barley populations.


Genetics ◽  
1996 ◽  
Vol 144 (4) ◽  
pp. 1993-1999 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter D Keightley

Much population genetics and evolution theory depends on knowledge of genomic mutation rates and distributions of mutation effects for fitness, but most information comes from a few mutation accumulation experiments in Drosophila in which replicated chromosomes are sheltered from natural selection by a balancer chromosome. I show here that data from these experiments imply the existence of a large class of minor viability mutations with approximately equivalent effects. However, analysis of the distribution of viabilities of chromosomes exposed to EMS mutagenesis reveals a qualitatively different distribution of effects lacking such a minor effects class. A possible explanation for this difference is that transposable element insertions, a common class of spontaneous mutation event in Drosophila, frequently generate minor viability effects. This explanation would imply that current estimates of deleterious mutation rates are not generally applicable in evolutionary models, as transposition rates vary widely. Alternatively, much of the apparent decline in viability under spontaneous mutation accumulation could have been nonmutational, perhaps due to selective improvement of balancer chromosomes. This explanation accords well with the data and implies a spontaneous mutation rate for viability two orders of magnitude lower than previously assumed, with most mutation load attributable to major effects.


Nature ◽  
1957 ◽  
Vol 180 (4599) ◽  
pp. 1433-1434 ◽  
Author(s):  
LARS EHEENBERG ◽  
GÜNTER VON EHRENSTEIN ◽  
ARNE HEDGRAN

Genome ◽  
1989 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 118-121 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthias R. Wabl ◽  
Hans-Martin Jäck ◽  
R. C. von Borstel ◽  
Charles M. Steinberg

The authors have developed a method to measure the rate of spontaneous mutations taking place in IgH, the gene encoding the immunoglobulin heavy chain. When an amber chain-termination codon mutates to a sense codon, translation of the polypeptide chain will be completed, and mutant cells producing the heavy chain can be detected with a fluorescent labelled antibody. The protocol used is the compartmentalization test which minimizes any effect of selection. In subclones of the pre-B lymphocyte line 18–81, the spontaneous mutation rate in the part of IgH encoding the variable region is somewhat greater than 10−5 mutations per base pair per generation. This supports the hypothesis that hypermutation is not dependent on cell stimulation by an antigen. In a hybrid between a cell of this line and a myeloma (which represents the terminal stage of the B-cell lineage), the mutation rate was too low to be determined by this test, less than 10−9. When the same loss to gain procedure system was used with an opal chain-terminating codon in the part of IgH encoding the constant region (Cμ), a high rate of reversion by deletion was found. Long (more than one exon) and short (less than one exon) deletions occurred at rates of 1.7 × 10−5 and 1.4 × 10−7 per generation, respectively. It is thought that the high rate of deletion is not related to somatic hypermutation but rather to DNA rearrangement during the heavy-chain class switch, which is occurring in these pre-B cell lines. The point mutation rate was too low to be detected above the background of deletion mutants, less than 5 × 10−8. The immunoglobulin mutator system works weakly, if at all, on two other, nonimmunoglobulin, genes tested: B2m (β2 microglobulin) and the gene for ouabain resistance.Key words: pre-B lymphocyte, B lymphocyte, spontaneous mutation rate, compartmentalization test, deletion mutation, hypermutation.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Markus Pfenninger ◽  
Halina Binde Doria ◽  
Jana Nickel ◽  
Anne Thielsch ◽  
Klaus Schwenk ◽  
...  

AbstractMutations are the ultimate source of heritable variation and therefore the fuel for evolution, but direct estimates exist only for few species. We estimated the spontaneous nucleotide mutation rate among clonal generations in the waterflea Daphnia galeata with a short term mutation accumulation approach. Individuals from eighteen mutation accumulation lines over five generations were deep genome sequenced to count de novo mutations that were not present in a pool of F1 individuals, representing the parental genotype. We identified 12 new nucleotide mutations in 90 clonal generational passages. This resulted in an estimated haploid mutation rate of 0.745 x 10-9 (95% c.f. 0.39 x 10-9 − 1.26 x 10-9), which is slightly lower than recent estimates for other Daphnia species. We discuss the implications for the population genetics of Cladocerans.


1995 ◽  
Vol 15 (10) ◽  
pp. 5329-5338 ◽  
Author(s):  
K Onel ◽  
M P Thelen ◽  
D O Ferguson ◽  
R L Bennett ◽  
W K Holloman

The REC1 gene of Ustilago maydis has an uninterrupted open reading frame, predicted from the genomic sequence to encode a protein of 522 amino acid residues. Nevertheless, an intron is present, and functional activity of the gene in mitotic cells requires an RNA processing event to remove the intron. This results in a change in reading frame and production of a protein of 463 amino acid residues. The 3'-->5' exonuclease activity of proteins derived from the REC1 genomic open reading frame, the intronless open reading frame, and several mutants was investigated. The mutants included a series of deletions constructed by removing restriction fragments at the 3' end of the cloned REC1 gene and a set of mutant alleles previously isolated in screens for radiation sensitivity. All of these proteins were overproduced in Escherichia coli as N-terminal polyhistidine-tagged fusions that were subsequently purified by immobilized metal affinity chromatography and assayed for 3'-->5' exonuclease activity. The results indicated that elimination of the C-terminal third of the protein did not result in a serious reduction in 3'-->5' exonuclease activity, but deletion into the midsection caused a severe loss of activity. The biological activity of the rec1-1 allele, which encodes a truncated polypeptide with full 3'-->5' exonuclease activity, and the rec1-5 allele, which encodes a more severely truncated polypeptide with no exonuclease activity, was investigated. The two mutants were equally sensitive to the lethal effect of UV light, but the spontaneous mutation rate was elevated 10-fold over the wild-type rate in the rec1-1 mutant and 100-fold in the rec1-5 mutant. The elevated spontaneous mutation rate correlated with the ablation of exonuclease activity, but the radiation sensitivity did not. These results indicate that the C-terminal portion of the Rec1 protein is not essential for exonuclease activity but is crucial in the role of REC1 in DNA damage repair.


2020 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sohail Ahmad ◽  
Qihong Huang ◽  
Jinfeng Ni ◽  
Yuanxi Xiao ◽  
Yunfeng Yang ◽  
...  

EndoMS is a recently identified mismatch specific endonuclease in Thermococcales of Archaea and Mycobacteria of Bacteria. The homologs of EndoMS are conserved in Archaea and Actinobacteria, where classic MutS-MutL-mediated DNA mismatch repair pathway is absent or non-functional. Here, we report a study on the in vitro mismatch cleavage activity and in vivo function of an EndoMS homolog (SisEndoMS) from Sulfolobus islandicus REY15A, the model archaeon belonging to Crenarchaeota. SisEndoMS is highly active on duplex DNA containing G/T, G/G, and T/T mismatches. Interestingly, the cleavage activity of SisEndoMS is stimulated by the heterotrimeric PCNAs, and when Mn2+ was used as the co-factor instead of Mg2+, SisEndoMS was also active on DNA substrates containing C/T or A/G mismatches, suggesting that the endonuclease activity can be regulated by ion co-factors and accessory proteins. We compared the spontaneous mutation rate of the wild type strain REY15A and ∆endoMS by counter selection against 5-fluoroorotic acid (5-FOA). The endoMS knockout mutant had much higher spontaneous mutation rate (5.06 × 10−3) than that of the wild type (4.6 × 10−6). A mutation accumulation analysis also showed that the deletion mutant had a higher mutation occurrence than the wild type, with transition mutation being the dominant, suggesting that SisEndoMS is responsible for mutation avoidance in this hyperthermophilic archaeon. Overexpression of the wild type SisEndoMS in S. islandicus resulted in retarded growth and abnormal cell morphology, similar to strains overexpressing Hje and Hjc, the Holliday junction endonucleases. Transcriptomic analysis revealed that SisEndoMS overexpression led to upregulation of distinct gene including the CRISPR-Cas IIIB system, methyltransferases, and glycosyltransferases, which are mainly localized to specific regions in the chromosome. Collectively, our results support that EndoMS proteins represent a noncanonical DNA repair pathway in Archaea. The mechanism of the mismatch repair pathway in Sulfolobus which have a single chromosome is discussed.


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