ArticleNature2016
Tempo and mode of genome evolution in a 50,000-generation experiment.
Article in Nature, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 260 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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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
260 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Interaction between mutation type and gene pleiotropy drives parallel evolution in the laboratory.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2023Pooled it
- Dissecting Fluctuating Selection: A Unified Population and Quantitative Genetics Framework.Genome biology and evolution · 2026Article
- Parallel evolution of chimeric genes in microbial evolution experiments.Microbial genomics · 2026Article
- Adaptive Laboratory Evolution inMicroorganisms · 2026Review
- OpenEvo: An Open-Source Platform for Automated Evolution and Analysis.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Long-term competition experiments reveal limited adaptive evolution in human cell lines.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Rapid Evolution of Ionic Silver Resistance inMicroorganisms · 2026Article
- Spontaneous mutation rate and spectrum are modulated by organismal fitness.Science advances · 2026Article
- Antibiotic susceptibility ofmSphere · 2026Article
- Parallel but distinct adaptive routes in the budding and fission yeasts after 10,000 generations of experimental evolution.Nature ecology & evolution · 2026Article
- Experimental evolution of fungal pathogens as a tool to unravel host adaptation and virulence.PLoS pathogens · 2026Article
- Genomic diversification, adaptive convergence, and regulatory rewiring in aging Escherichia coli colonies.BMC microbiology · 2026Article
- A Concept Using α-Niche Evolution Within Bacterial Communities to Direct β-Niche Evolution of Focal Species.Environmental microbiology · 2026Article
- A bacterial ecocline in Klebsiella pneumoniae may explain its backboned phylogeny.PLoS biology · 2026Article
- PyEvoMotion: a Python tool for population-based time-course analysis of genome evolution.Bioinformatics (Oxford, England) · 2026Article
- The dynamic distribution of genetic tandem amplifications in a heteroresistant Escherichia coli population revealed by ultra-deep long read sequencing.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Historical contingency limits adaptive diversification in a spatially structured environment.Evolution letters · 2026Article
- Using TraDIS as a complementary approach to long term evolution for mapping adaptive mutations in Escherichia coli.PLoS genetics · 2026Article
- The evolution of genetic drift over 50,000 generations.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Substantial deceleration of adaptation of HIV-1 within 1500 generations in an experimental evolution: a genomic perspective.Virus evolution · 2026Article
200 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
12 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Adaptation by natural selection depends on the rates, effects and interactions of many mutations, making it difficult to determine what proportion of mutations in an evolving lineage are beneficial. Here we analysed 264 complete genomes from 12 Escherichia coli populations to characterize their dynamics over 50,000 generations. The populations that retained the ancestral mutation rate support a model in which most fixed mutations are beneficial, the fraction of beneficial mutations declines as fitness rises, and neutral mutations accumulate at a constant rate. We also compared these populations to mutation-accumulation lines evolved under a bottlenecking regime that minimizes selection. Nonsynonymous mutations, intergenic mutations, insertions and deletions are overrepresented in the long-term populations, further supporting the inference that most mutations that reached high frequency were favoured by selection. These results illuminate the shifting balance of forces that govern genome evolution in populations adapting to a new environment.
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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.