ArticleBMC evolutionary biology2008
Muller's Ratchet and compensatory mutation in Caenorhabditis briggsae mitochondrial genome evolution.
Article in BMC evolutionary biology, 2008. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 58 papers.
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58 citing papers in PubMed.
- Inheritance and selection of the mitochondrial genome.Nature reviews. Genetics · 2026Review
- Fisher Information Limits on Genetic Stability, Diversity, and Regulation.Bulletin of mathematical biology · 2026Article
- Programmed mitophagy at the oocyte-to-zygote transition promotes lineage endurance.Nature cell biology · 2026Article
- Trans-generational maintenance of mitochondrial DNA integrity in oocytes during early folliculogenesis.PLoS genetics · 2025Article
- Effects of mating system and adaptedness on the evolution of fitness and mtDNA copy number in mitonuclear mismatched C. elegans.Heredity · 2025Article
- Mitogenomics of the zoonotic parasiteParasitology · 2024Article
- Nuclear compensatory evolution driven by mito-nuclear incompatibilities.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2024Article
- Dissecting the sequential evolution of a selfish mitochondrial genome in Caenorhabditis elegans.Heredity · 2024Article
- Comparative mitochondrial genomics in Nematoda reveal astonishing variation in compositional biases and substitution rates indicative of multi-level selection.BMC genomics · 2024Article
- Friend turned foe: selfish behavior of a spontaneously arising mitochondrial deletion in an experimentally evolved Caenorhabditis elegans population.G3 (Bethesda, Md.) · 2024Article
- Mitochondrial genome plasticity of mammalian species.BMC genomics · 2024Article
- Evidence for hybridization-driven heteroplasmy maintained across generations in a ricefish endemic to a Wallacean ancient lake.Biology letters · 2024Article
- A Comparative Analysis of Selection Pressures Suffered by Mitochondrial Genomes in Two Planthopper Species with Divergent Climate Distributions.International journal of molecular sciences · 2023Article
- Evolutionary codependency: insights into the mitonuclear interaction landscape from experimental and wild Caenorhabditis nematodes.Current opinion in genetics & development · 2023Review
- Population genetics of clonally transmissible cancers.Nature ecology & evolution · 2022Review
- Divergent paths in the evolutionary history of maternally transmitted clam symbionts.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2022Article
- Temperature-Specific and Sex-Specific Fitness Effects of Sympatric Mitochondrial and Mito-Nuclear Variation inInsects · 2022Article
- Genetic architecture and temporal analysis of Caenorhabditis briggsae hybrid developmental delay.PloS one · 2022Article
- Mitochondrial DNA heteroplasmy is modulated during oocyte development propagating mutation transmission.Science advances · 2021Article
- Loss of heterozygosity results in rapid but variable genome homogenization across yeast genetic backgrounds.eLife · 2021Article
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2 authors.
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No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundThe theory of Muller' Ratchet predicts that small asexual populations are doomed to accumulate ever-increasing deleterious mutation loads as a consequence of the magnified power of genetic drift and mutation that accompanies small population size. Evidence for Muller's Ratchet and knowledge on its underlying molecular mechanisms, however, are lacking for natural populations.
resultsWe characterized mitochondrial genome evolutionary processes in Caenorhabditis briggsae natural isolates to show that numerous lineages experience a high incidence of nonsynonymous substitutions in protein-coding genes and accumulate unusual deleterious noncoding DNA stretches with associated heteroplasmic function-disrupting genome deletions. Isolate-specific deletion proportions correlated negatively with nematode fecundity, suggesting that these deletions might negatively affect C. briggsae fitness. However, putative compensatory mutations were also observed that are predicted to reduce heteroplasmy levels of deleterious deletions. Paradoxically, compensatory mutations were observed in one major intraspecific C. briggsae clade where population sizes are estimated to be very small (and selection is predicted to be relatively weak), but not in a second major clade where population size estimates are much larger and selection is expected to be more efficient.
conclusionThis study provides evidence that the mitochondrial genomes of animals evolving in nature are susceptible to Muller's Ratchet, suggests that context-dependent compensatory mutations can accumulate in small populations, and predicts that Muller's Ratchet can affect fundamental evolutionary forces such as the rate of mutation.
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