Genetic background affects epistatic interactions between two beneficial mutations

Genetic background affects epistatic interactions between two beneficial mutations.

The phenotypic effect of mutations can depend on their genetic background, a phenomenon known as epistasis. Many experimental studies have found that epistasis is pervasive, and some indicate that it may follow a general pattern dependent on the fitness effect of the interacting mutations. These studies have, however, typically examined the effect of interactions between a small number of focal...

Cancer initiation with epistatic interactions between driver and passenger mutations.

We investigate the dynamics of cancer initiation in a mathematical model with one driver mutation and several passenger mutations. Our analysis is based on a multi-type branching process: we model individual cells which can either divide or undergo apoptosis. In the case of a cell division, the two daughter cells can mutate, which potentially confers a change in fitness to the cell. In contrast...

Environmental change exposes beneficial epistatic interactions in a catalytic RNA.

Natural selection drives populations of individuals towards local peaks in a fitness landscape. These peaks are created by the interactions between individual mutations. Fitness landscapes may change as an environment changes. In a previous contribution, we discovered a variant of the Azoarcus group I ribozyme that represents a local peak in the RNA fitness landscape. The genotype at this peak ...

Epistatic interactions between Y-linked regulatory polymorphisms and genetic background affect global gene expression in Drosophila melanogaster

Deleterious mutations, variable epistatic interactions, and the evolution of recombination.

In this paper, we examine the conditions that allow increased recombination to evolve in the presence of recurrent deleterious mutation. We focus on a three-locus model first studied by Feldman et al. (1980), which follows the dynamics of a modifier locus that alters the recombination rate between two loci subject to deleterious mutation. Although Feldman et al. (1980) indicated that increased ...