ArticleMolecular biology and evolution2020
Gene Loss Predictably Drives Evolutionary Adaptation.
Article in Molecular biology and evolution, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 67 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
67 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Loss-of-function mutations are main drivers of adaptations during short-term evolution.Scientific reports · 2024Pooled it
- The Origin and Early Evolution of Fungi: Challenges, Inferences, and Principles.Annual review of cell and developmental biology · 2026Review
- Evolutionary diversification of invertase paralogs couples carbon metabolism and sexual reproduction in fission yeasts.Molecular biology and evolution · 2026Article
- Three phosphatase families form a community: The phosphohydrolases that act upon inositol pyrophosphates.FEBS letters · 2026Review
- Article
- Convergent genomic trajectories shape adaptation to life on land across animal lineages.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Lineage-Specific Gene Family Innovations Underpin the Pathogenicity of Woody-Plant Pathogens in Botryosphaeriaceae.Genome biology and evolution · 2026Article
- Resolving translational challenges in cancer biology through yeast experimental evolution.Cancer metastasis reviews · 2026Review
- Gene loss and compensatory evolution as a source of metabolic preadaptations.Molecular biology and evolution · 2026Article
- Regions of low gene expression promote maintenance and adaptation of horizontally acquired genes in yeasts.Communications biology · 2026Article
- A novel yeast extract from a multi-stress-resistant Saccharomyces cerevisiae confers potent antioxidant and UV-protective activities to skin cells.BMC microbiology · 2026Article
- Beyond Mendel: a call to revisit the genotype-phenotype map through new experimental paradigms.Genetics · 2026Article
- Parallel but distinct adaptive routes in the budding and fission yeasts after 10,000 generations of experimental evolution.Nature ecology & evolution · 2026Article
- Global genetic rewiring during compensatory evolution in the yeast polarity network.EMBO reports · 2026Article
- Chromosomal rearrangements and segmental deletions contribute to gene loss in squamates.BMC biology · 2026Article
- Absence of Toll-like Receptor 21 (Biology · 2026Article
- Cross-domain cooperation drives nutrient acquisition and metabolism in the bark beetle holobiont.The ISME journal · 2026Article
- Stochastic phenotypic switching arises in response to directional selection in experimentally evolved multicellular yeast.Communications biology · 2025Article
- STING signals to NF-κB from late endolysosomal compartments using IRF3 as an adaptor.Nature immunology · 2025Article
- Copy Number Variation Shapes Structural Genomic Diversity Associated With Ecological Adaptation in the Wild Tomato Solanum chilense.Molecular biology and evolution · 2025Article
7 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
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Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Loss of gene function is common throughout evolution, even though it often leads to reduced fitness. In this study, we systematically evaluated how an organism adapts after deleting genes that are important for growth under oxidative stress. By evolving, sequencing, and phenotyping over 200 yeast lineages, we found that gene loss can enhance an organism's capacity to evolve and adapt. Although gene loss often led to an immediate decrease in fitness, many mutants rapidly acquired suppressor mutations that restored fitness. Depending on the strain's genotype, some ultimately even attained higher fitness levels than similarly adapted wild-type cells. Further, cells with deletions in different modules of the genetic network followed distinct and predictable mutational trajectories. Finally, losing highly connected genes increased evolvability by facilitating the emergence of a more diverse array of phenotypes after adaptation. Together, our findings show that loss of specific parts of a genetic network can facilitate adaptation by opening alternative evolutionary paths.
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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.