Cryptic genetic variation promotes rapid evolutionary adaptation in an RNA enzyme

Eric J. Hayden, Evandro Ferrada and Andreas Wagner ()
Additional contact information
Eric J. Hayden: Institute of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies, University of Zurich, 8057 Zurich, Switzerland
Evandro Ferrada: Institute of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies, University of Zurich, 8057 Zurich, Switzerland
Andreas Wagner: Institute of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies, University of Zurich, 8057 Zurich, Switzerland

Nature, 2011, vol. 474, issue 7349, 92-95

Abstract: Be prepared, with cryptic mutations Some mutations, known as cryptic mutations, have no observable effect on an organism's phenotype unless combined with other mutations or environmental changes. As the originally cryptic variation can turn out to be beneficial in such new conditions, it has been proposed that it may facilitate evolutionary adaptation — or 'evolvability', but this has not been rigorously demonstrated experimentally because of the complexity of both natural genomes and environments. In a study of a simplified system in vitro — the catalytic activity of a single RNA enzyme — Andreas Wagner and colleagues demonstrate that a population that has accumulated more cryptic variation adapts more rapidly to a new chemical environment than a competing population with fewer variations. The existence of such a pre-adaptation mechanism would have fundamental implications for animal and plant breeding, as well as for complex trait diseases in humans.

Date: 2011
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/nature10083 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:nature:v:474:y:2011:i:7349:d:10.1038_nature10083

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/

DOI: 10.1038/nature10083

Access Statistics for this article

Nature is currently edited by Magdalena Skipper

More articles in Nature from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().