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The Rate of Adaptation in Asexuals

H. Allen Orr
Genetics June 1, 2000 vol. 155 no. 2 961-968
H. Allen Orr
Department of Biology, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York 14627
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Abstract

I study the population genetics of adaptation in asexuals. I show that the rate of adaptive substitution in an asexual species or nonrecombining chromosome region is a bell-shaped function of the mutation rate: at some point, increasing the mutation rate decreases the rate of substitution. Curiously, the mutation rate that maximizes the rate of adaptation depends solely on the strength of selection against deleterious mutations. In particular, adaptation is fastest when the genomic rate of mutation, U, equals the harmonic mean of selection coefficients against deleterious mutations, where we assume that selection for favorable alleles is milder than that against deleterious ones. This simple result is independent of the shape of the distribution of effects among favorable and deleterious mutations, population size, and the action of clonal interference. In the course of this work, I derive an approximation to the probability of fixation of a favorable mutation in an asexual genome or nonrecombining chromosome region in which both favorable and deleterious mutations occur.

  • Received November 9, 1999.
  • Accepted February 18, 2000.
  • Copyright © 2000 by the Genetics Society of America
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Volume 155 Issue 2, June 2000

Genetics: 155 (2)

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The Rate of Adaptation in Asexuals

H. Allen Orr
Genetics June 1, 2000 vol. 155 no. 2 961-968
H. Allen Orr
Department of Biology, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York 14627
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • For correspondence: aorr@mail.rochester.edu
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Citation

The Rate of Adaptation in Asexuals

H. Allen Orr
Genetics June 1, 2000 vol. 155 no. 2 961-968
H. Allen Orr
Department of Biology, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York 14627
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • For correspondence: aorr@mail.rochester.edu

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  • Actin and Nuclear Envelope Components Influence Ectopic Recombination in the Absence of Swr1
  • Extending Tests of Hardy–Weinberg Equilibrium to Structured Populations
  • Selective Sweep at a QTL in a Randomly Fluctuating Environment
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The Genetics Society of America (GSA), founded in 1931, is the professional membership organization for scientific researchers and educators in the field of genetics. Our members work to advance knowledge in the basic mechanisms of inheritance, from the molecular to the population level.

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