ArticleProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America2013
Mutation rate dynamics in a bacterial population reflect tension between adaptation and genetic load.
Article in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 156 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
156 citing papers in PubMed.
- Adaptive Laboratory Evolution inMicroorganisms · 2026Review
- Pyocyanin produced byAntimicrobial agents and chemotherapy · 2026Article
- UV-B-induced DNA repair mechanisms and their effects on mutagenesis and culturability inmSystems · 2026Article
- Growth rate-dependent mutations and phenotypic switching facilitate rapid adaptation.NPJ systems biology and applications · 2026Article
- Gradient metapopulation microfluidic ecologies shape genetic and biofilm drivers of T4r phage resistance in E. coli.NPJ biofilms and microbiomes · 2026Article
- The effect of hyper-induced SOS response on evolution in Escherichia coli.BMC microbiology · 2026Article
- Wanted: A population genetic theory of biological noise regulation.PLoS genetics · 2026Article
- Tissue-specific experimental evolution reveals adaptive trade-offs in the plant vascular pathogen Clavibacter michiganensis.The ISME journal · 2026Article
- Stable Hypermutators Revealed by the Genomic Landscape of Genes Involved in Genome Stability Among Yeast Species.Molecular biology and evolution · 2025Article
- Article
- Unraveling the tempo and mode of horizontal gene transfer in bacteria.Trends in microbiology · 2025Review
- Antimutator and Mutational Spectrum Effects Can Combine to Reduce Evolutionary Potential in Escherichia coli ΔnudJ.Molecular biology and evolution · 2025Article
- Mutation bias alters the distribution of fitness effects of mutations.PLoS biology · 2025Article
- Strain tracking in complex microbiomes using synteny analysis reveals per-species modes of evolution.Nature biotechnology · 2025Article
- Genome wide analyses reveal the role of mutator phenotypes in Mycobacterium tuberculosis drug resistance emergence.npj antimicrobials and resistance · 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
- Quantitative analysis of relationship between mutation rate and speed of adaptation under antibiotic exposure in Escherichia coli.PLoS genetics · 2025Article
- Diabetes potentiates the emergence and expansion of antibiotic resistance.Science advances · 2025Article
- Targeting bacterial transcription factors for infection control: opportunities and challenges.Transcription · 2025Review
- Strain phylogroup and environmental constraints shape Escherichia coli dynamics and diversity over a 20-year human gut time series.The ISME journal · 2025Article
96 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
10 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Mutations are the ultimate source of heritable variation for evolution. Understanding how mutation rates themselves evolve is thus essential for quantitatively understanding many evolutionary processes. According to theory, mutation rates should be minimized for well-adapted populations living in stable environments, whereas hypermutators may evolve if conditions change. However, the long-term fate of hypermutators is unknown. Using a phylogenomic approach, we found that an adapting Escherichia coli population that first evolved a mutT hypermutator phenotype was later invaded by two independent lineages with mutY mutations that reduced genome-wide mutation rates. Applying neutral theory to synonymous substitutions, we dated the emergence of these mutations and inferred that the mutT mutation increased the point-mutation rate by ∼150-fold, whereas the mutY mutations reduced the rate by ∼40-60%, with a corresponding decrease in the genetic load. Thus, the long-term fate of the hypermutators was governed by the selective advantage arising from a reduced mutation rate as the potential for further adaptation declined.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
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.