Fig. 3: Pol IV displays a preference for mutating specific functional pathways.

BPS mutation rates in PseudoCAP categories (A) and functional pathways (B, C) for the mutT (T), mutT mutS^β (TS^β), mutT dinB (TD) and mutT mutS^β dinB (TS^βD) strains. Mutation rates per generation and nucleotide of AT>CG mutations ( ~ 430–670 per founder) in coding regions, and 95% confidence limits were calculated as described in Materials and Methods. The number of AT in the coding regions of the genes included in each PseudoCAP category and functional pathway was used to estimate mutation rates. Confidence limits for values fewer than 5 BPS events were not calculated. Error bars represent the upper and lower 95% confidence limits. No overlap of 95% confidence intervals indicates statistically significant differences. In (A), the asterisks show significant differences with the mutation rates in the whole-genome coding regions for each strain. In (B), bars marked with an asterisk differ significantly from the others (p < 0.05).