Evidence map›Paper›PMID 33779543›Full record

ArticleeLife2021

Global epistasis emerges from a generic model of a complex trait.

Gautam Reddy, Michael M Desai

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in eLife, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 76 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
76citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

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.

2 · The registry

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.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

76 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Article
  2. Article
  3. Article
  4. Global epistasis in ecosystems arises from resource constraints.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026
    Article
  5. Article
  6. Article
  7. Article
  8. Article
  9. Article
  10. Article
  11. Article
  12. Evolutionary pathways in epistatic mechanical networks.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2026
    Article
  13. Article
  14. Review
  15. Article
  16. Article
  17. Article
  18. Distinguishing direct interactions from global epistasis using rank statistics.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025
    Article
  19. Article
  20. Ecological diversification in rapidly evolving populations.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025
    Article

16 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

2 authors.

Gautam ReddyNSF-Simons Center for Mathematical and Statistical Analysis of Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, United States.ORCID 0000-0002-1276-9613
Michael M DesaiNSF-Simons Center for Mathematical and Statistical Analysis of Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, United States.ORCID 0000-0002-9581-1150

Funding

Microbial Adaptation and the Statistics of Epistasis and PleiotropyR01GM104239 · NIGMS · HARVARD UNIVERSITY · PI DESAI, MICHAEL M · 2013 to 2025
$4.5M
National Science Foundation PHY-1914916NIGMS NIH HHS R01 GM104239Simons Foundation 1764269Simons Foundation 376196
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Epistasis between mutations can make adaptation contingent on evolutionary history. Yet despite widespread 'microscopic' epistasis between the mutations involved, microbial evolution experiments show consistent patterns of fitness increase between replicate lines. Recent work shows that this consistency is driven in part by global patterns of diminishing-returns and increasing-costs epistasis, which make mutations systematically less beneficial (or more deleterious) on fitter genetic backgrounds. However, the origin of this 'global' epistasis remains unknown. Here, we show that diminishing-returns and increasing-costs epistasis emerge generically as a consequence of pervasive microscopic epistasis. Our model predicts a specific quantitative relationship between the magnitude of global epistasis and the stochastic effects of microscopic epistasis, which we confirm by reanalyzing existing data. We further show that the distribution of fitness effects takes on a universal form when epistasis is widespread and introduce a novel fitness landscape model to show how phenotypic evolution can be repeatable despite sequence-level stochasticity.

Indexed as

Evolution, MolecularMutationEpistasis, GeneticEscherichia coliModels, GeneticMultifactorial Inheritancecomplex traitepistasisevolutionary biologyphysics of living systemspredictability

Identifiers

PMID33779543
PMCPMC8057814

What OpenQuestion holds

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Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

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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.