help button home button Genetics Email Content Delivery
HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS
Originally published as Genetics Published Articles Ahead of Print on December 15, 2005.

Genetics, Vol. 172, 2047-2056, April 2006, Copyright © 2006
doi:10.1534/genetics.105.049817

This Article
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow All Versions of this Article:
genetics.105.049817v1
172/4/2047    most recent
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow reprints & permissions
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via HighWire
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Pepin, K. M.
Right arrow Articles by Wichman, H. A.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Pepin, K. M.
Right arrow Articles by Wichman, H. A.

Variable Pleiotropic Effects From Mutations at the Same Locus Hamper Prediction of Fitness From a Fitness Component

Kim M. Pepin1, Melanie A. Samuel2 and Holly A. Wichman

Department of Biological Sciences, University of Idaho, Moscow, Idaho 83844-3051

1 Corresponding author: Department of Biological Sciences, University of Idaho, Moscow, ID 83844-3051.
E-mail: pepi8744{at}uidaho.edu

The relationship of genotype, fitness components, and fitness can be complicated by genetic effects such as pleiotropy and epistasis and by heterogeneous environments. However, because it is often difficult to measure genotype and fitness directly, fitness components are commonly used to estimate fitness without regard to genetic architecture. The small bacteriophage {phi}X174 enables direct evaluation of genetic and environmental effects on fitness components and fitness. We used 15 mutants to study mutation effects on attachment rate and fitness in six hosts. The mutants differed from our lab strain of {phi}X174 by only one or two amino acids in the major capsid protein (gpF, sites 101 and 102). The sites are variable in natural and experimentally evolved {phi}X174 populations and affect phage attachment rate. Within the limits of detection of our assays, all mutations were neutral or deleterious relative to the wild type; 11 mutants had decreased host range. While fitness was predictable from attachment rate in most cases, 3 mutants had rapid attachment but low fitness on most hosts. Thus, some mutations had a pleiotropic effect on a fitness component other than attachment rate. In addition, on one host most mutants had high attachment rate but decreased fitness, suggesting that pleiotropic effects also depended on host. The data highlight that even in this simple, well-characterized system, prediction of fitness from a fitness component depends on genetic architecture and environment.




This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 GeneticsHome page
E. Bantinaki, R. Kassen, C. G. Knight, Z. Robinson, A. J. Spiers, and P. B. Rainey
Adaptive Divergence in Experimental Populations of Pseudomonas fluorescens. III. Mutational Origins of Wrinkly Spreader Diversity
Genetics, May 1, 2007; 176(1): 441 - 453.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS
Copyright © 2006 by the Genetics Society of America.