Mutational robustness can facilitate adaptation

Jeremy A. Draghi, Todd L. Parsons, Günter P. Wagner and Joshua B. Plotkin ()
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Jeremy A. Draghi: Department of Biology,
Todd L. Parsons: Department of Biology,
Günter P. Wagner: Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut 06520, USA
Joshua B. Plotkin: Department of Biology,

Nature, 2010, vol. 463, issue 7279, 353-355

Abstract: A robust approach to flexibility The role of mutational robustness in evolution has been a topic of much debate and controversy. On the one hand, it would seem to impede adaptation by making it less easy for a new phenotype to develop in the event of environmental changes; on the other it is surely advantageous for an organism to buffer its phenotype against possibly unhelpful mutations. How can an organism handle this paradox, and be both robust and adaptable? A quantitative population genetics model gives a possible resolution to this problem, by showing that mutational robustness can either impede or facilitate adaptation, depending on the population size, the mutation rate and the structure of the fitness landscape.

Date: 2010
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DOI: 10.1038/nature08694

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