title: Competition between high- and higher-mutating strains of Escherichia coli.
abstract: Experimental studies have shown that a mutator allele can readily hitchhike to fixation with beneficial mutations in an asexual population having a low, wild-type mutation rate. Here, we show that a genotype bearing two mutator alleles can supplant a population already fixed for one mutator allele. Our results provide experimental support for recent theory predicting that mutator alleles will tend to accumulate in asexual populations by hitchhiking with beneficial mutations, causing an ever-higher genomic mutation rate.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, University of Pennsylvania, Leidy Laboratories, 415 South University Avenue, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA. gentilec@sas.upenn.edu
authors.forename: Christopher F
authors.initials: CF
authors.lastname: Gentile
authors.forename: Szi-Chieh
authors.initials: SC
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.forename: Sebastian Akle
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Serrano
authors.forename: Philip J
authors.initials: PJ
authors.lastname: Gerrish
authors.forename: Paul D
authors.initials: PD
authors.lastname: Sniegowski
mesh_terms: D000483:Alleles; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000235:genetics* / Q000254:growth & development; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D056265:Microbial Interactions; D009154:Mutation; D012641:Selection, Genetic