A broad mutational target explains a fast rate of phenotypic evolution
- INRA, France
- CNRS, France
- Universite de Recherche PSL, France
Abstract
The rapid evolution of a trait in a group of organisms can be explained by the sustained action of natural selection or by a high mutational variance, i.e. the propensity to change under spontaneous mutation. The causes for a high mutational variance are still elusive. In some cases, fast evolution depends on the high mutation rate of one or few loci with short tandem repeats. Here, we report on the fastest evolving cell fate among vulva precursor cells in Caenorhabditis nematodes, that of P3.p. We identify and validate causal mutations underlying P3.p's high mutational variance. We find that these positions do not present any characteristics of a high mutation rate, are scattered across the genome and the corresponding genes belong to distinct biological pathways. Our data indicate that a broad mutational target size is the cause of the high mutational variance and of the corresponding fast phenotypic evolutionary rate.
Data availability
Sequencing data have been deposited at EBI under accessions PRJEB30820-2. All other data generated or analysed during this study are included in the manuscript and supporting files. Source data files have been provided in Suppl File 1.
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Funding
Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR-12-BSV2-0004-01)
- Marie-Anne Félix
Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR-18-CE13-0006-01)
- Marie-Anne Félix
Marie Sklodowska-Curie Training Grant (751530-EvoCellFate)
- Joao Picao-Osorio
The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.
Copyright
© 2020, Besnard et al.
This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.
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A broad mutational target explains a fast rate of phenotypic evolution
eLife 9:e54928.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.54928
