Adaptive Mutation: Has the Unicorn Landed?

Corresponding author: Patricia L. Foster, S107, Boston University School of Public Health, Boston University School of Medicine, 715 Albany St., Boston, MA 02118-2394, pfoster{at}bu.edu (E-mail).

Reversion of an episomal Lac^- allele during lactose selection has been studied as a model for adaptive mutation. Although recent results show that the mutations that arise during selection are not "adaptive" in the original sense, the mutagenic mechanism that produces these mutations may nonetheless be of evolutionary significance. In addition, a transient mutational state induced in a subpopulation of starving cells could provide a species with a mechanism for adaptive evolution.

"Adaptive mutation is a strategy, not a mechanism." JAN DRAKE (1991, personal communication)

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