Positive selection of synonymous mutations in vesicular stomatitis virus.
Prevailing evolutionary forces are typically deduced from the pattern of differences in synonymous and non-synonymous mutations, under the assumption of neutrality in the absence of amino acid change. We determined the complete sequence of ten vesicular stomatitis virus populations evolving under positive selection. A significant number of the mutations occurred independently in two or more strains, a process known as parallel evolution, and a substantial fraction of the parallel mutations were silent. Parallel evolution was also identified in non-coding regions. These results indicate that silent mutations can significantly contribute to adaptation in RNA viruses, and relative frequencies of synonymous and non-synonymous substitutions may not be useful to resolve their evolutionary history.
Novella
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Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Medical College of Ohio, Toledo, OH 43614 USA. isabel@mco.edu
Zárate
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Metzgar
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Ebendick-Corpus
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BE
D000818:Animals; D005075:Biological Evolution; D006224:Cricetinae; D004847:Epithelial Cells / Q000502:physiology / Q000821:virology; D005347:Fibroblasts / Q000502:physiology / Q000821:virology; D007668:Kidney / Q000502:physiology / Q000821:virology; D009154:Mutation / Q000235:genetics*; D011576:Psychodidae / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000821:virology*; D012641:Selection, Genetic; D014721:Vesicular stomatitis Indiana virus / Q000235:genetics* / Q000472:pathogenicity