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Quantifying the Slightly Deleterious Mutation Model of Molecular Evolution

journal contribution
posted on 2023-06-07, 22:40 authored by Adam Eyre-WalkerAdam Eyre-Walker, Peter D Keightley, Nick G C Smith, Daniel Gaffney
We have attempted to quantify the frequency and effects of slightly deleterious mutations (SDMs), those that have selective effects close to the reciprocal of the effective population size of a species, by comparing the level of selective constraint in protein-coding genes of related species that have different present-day effective population sizes. In our two comparisons, the species with the smaller effective population size showed lower constraint, implying that SDMs had become fixed. The fixation of SDMs was supported by the observation of a higher fraction of radical to conservative amino acid substitutions in species with smaller effective population sizes. The fraction of strongly deleterious mutations (which rarely become fixed) is >70% in most species. Only ~10% or fewer of mutations seem to behave as SDMs, but SDMs could comprise a substantial fraction of mutations in protein-coding genes that have a chance of becoming fixed between species.

History

Publication status

  • Published

Journal

Molecular Biology and Evolution

ISSN

0737-4038

Issue

12

Volume

19

Page range

2142-2149

Department affiliated with

  • Evolution, Behaviour and Environment Publications

Full text available

  • No

Peer reviewed?

  • Yes

Legacy Posted Date

2012-02-06

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