ArticleBMC evolutionary biology2008
Robustness promotes evolvability of thermotolerance in an RNA virus.
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 50 papers.
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Who cites it
50 citing papers in PubMed.
- Surface Composition and Temperature Interact to Shape Viral Survival and Growth.Environmental microbiology · 2026Article
- Survival of Thermostable Φ6 Genotypes in Acidic, Basic, and UV Environments.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Idiosyncratic evolvability among single-point ribosomal mutants towards multi-aminoglycoside resistance.PLoS genetics · 2025Article
- The evolution of robustness and fragility during long-term bacterial adaptation.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- Protein Quality Control is a Master Modulator of Molecular Evolution in Bacteria.Genome biology and evolution · 2025Review
- Selection for robust metabolism in domesticated yeasts is driven by adaptation to Hsp90 stress.Science (New York, N.Y.) · 2024Article
- Evolutionary Dynamics of Accelerated Antiviral Resistance Development in Hypermutator Herpesvirus.Molecular biology and evolution · 2024Article
- Experimental Evolution Studies in Φ6 Cystovirus.Viruses · 2024Review
- Mutational robustness and the role of buffer genes in evolvability.The EMBO journal · 2024Review
- Exploring the expanse between theoretical questions and experimental approaches in the modern study of evolvability.Journal of experimental zoology. Part B, Molecular and developmental evolution · 2023Article
- The evolutionary potential of influenza A virus hemagglutinin is highly constrained by epistatic interactions with neuraminidase.Cell host & microbe · 2022Article
- Article
- Viral protein instability enhances host-range evolvability.PLoS genetics · 2022Article
- Selection for Phage Resistance Reduces Virulence of Shigella flexneri.Applied and environmental microbiology · 2022Article
- Heat adaptation of phage T7 under an extended genetic code.Virus evolution · 2021Article
- Effects of historical co-infection on host shift abilities of exploitative and competitive viruses.Evolution; international journal of organic evolution · 2021Article
- Adaptation of turnip mosaic potyvirus to a specific niche reduces its genetic and environmental robustness.Virus evolution · 2020Article
- The Critical Role of Codon Composition on the Translation Efficiency Robustness of the Hepatitis A Virus Capsid.Genome biology and evolution · 2019Article
- Sexual selection contributes to partial restoration of phenotypic robustness in a butterfly.Scientific reports · 2018Article
- Evolutionary adaptation of an RNA bacteriophage to the simultaneous increase in the within-host and extracellular temperatures.Scientific reports · 2018Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundThe ability for an evolving population to adapt to a novel environment is achieved through a balance of robustness and evolvability. Robustness is the invariance of phenotype in the face of perturbation and evolvability is the capacity to adapt in response to selection. Genetic robustness has been posited, depending on the underlying mechanism, to either decrease the efficacy of selection, or increase the possibility of future adaptation. However, the true effect of genetic robustness on evolvability in biological systems remains uncertain.
resultsHere we demonstrate that genetic robustness increases evolvability of thermotolerance in laboratory populations of the RNA virus phi6. We observed that populations founded by robust clones evolved greater resistance to heat shock, relative to populations founded by brittle (less-robust) clones. Thus, we provide empirical evidence for the idea that robustness can promote evolvability in this environment, and further suggest that evolvability can arise indirectly via selection for robustness, rather than through direct selective action.
conclusionOur data imply that greater tolerance of mutational change is associated with virus adaptability in a new niche, a finding generally relevant to evolutionary biology, and informative for elucidating how viruses might evolve to emerge in new habitats and/or overcome novel therapies.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.