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Pervasive joint influence of epistasis and plasticity on mutational effects in Escherichia coli

Nature Genetics volume 36, pages 423–426 (2004)Cite this article

Abstract

The effects of mutations on phenotype and fitness may depend on the environment (phenotypic plasticity), other mutations (genetic epistasis) or both. Here we examine the fitness effects of 18 random insertion mutations in E. coli in two resource environments and five genetic backgrounds. We tested each mutation for plasticity and epistasis by comparing its fitness effects across these ecological and genetic contexts. Some mutations had no measurable effect in any of these contexts. None of the mutations had effects on phenotypic plasticity that were independent of genetic background. However, half the mutations had epistatic interactions such that their effects differed among genetic backgrounds, usually in an environment-dependent manner. Also, the pattern of mutational effects across backgrounds indicated that epistasis had been shaped primarily by unique events in the evolutionary history of a population rather than by repeatable events associated with shared environmental history.

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Figure 1: Plasticity and epistasis of mutations illustrated and tested.
Figure 2: Epistasis reflecting repeatable versus contingent historical effects illustrated and tested.

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Acknowledgements

We thank S. Elena and M. Travisano for sharing strains; N. Hajela for technical support; C. Borland, T. Cooper, H. Eisthen, B. Lundrigan, P. Moore and M. Travisano for valuable comments; and R. Wolfinger and C. Duarte for statistical advice. This work was supported by a fellowship from the US National Institutes of Health to S.K.R. and a grant from the National Science Foundation to R.E.L.

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  1. Susanna K Remold

    Present address: Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Osborn Memorial Laboratories, Yale University, 165 Prospect Street, New Haven, Connecticut, 06520, USA

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  1. Center for Microbial Ecology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, 48824, Michigan, USA

    Susanna K Remold & Richard E Lenski

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  1. Susanna K Remold
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  2. Richard E Lenski
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Correspondence to Susanna K Remold.

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Remold, S., Lenski, R. Pervasive joint influence of epistasis and plasticity on mutational effects in Escherichia coli. Nat Genet 36, 423–426 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1038/ng1324

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