Phenotypic novelties by compensatory evolution

CSABA PAL

Synthetic and Systems Biology Unit Biological Research Center, Szeged, Hungary

Since the early 1920s, Ronald Fisher pioneered the view that adaptation is by and large a hill-climbing process: it proceeds through progressive accumulation of beneficial mutations. However, as slightly deleterious mutations are far more abundant, they have a significant contribution to genetic variation in natural populations. In the long run, the wealth of such detrimental mutations is expected to promote the fixation of compensatory mutations elsewhere in the genome. In this work, we ask whether deleterious mutations promote adaptive genetic changes and what the side consequences of such a process might be. Using laboratory evolution, we demonstrate that deleterious mutations act as stepping stones in adaptive evolution by providing access to phenotypic novelties

Recent publications:

Pál, Cs., Papp, B. (2017) Evolution of complex adaptations in molecular systems. Nature Ecology & Evolution 1, 1084–1092

Szamecz, B, Boross, G, Kalapis, D, Kovács, K, Fekete, G, Farkas, Z, Lázár, V, Hrtyan, M, Kemmeren, P, Groot Koerkamp MJA, Rutkai, E, Holstege, FCP, Papp, B, Pál, C (2014) The genomic landscape of compensatory evolution. PLoS Biol 12(8): e1001935

Papp, B., Notebaart, R.A., Pál, C. (2011) Systems-biology approaches for predicting genomic evolution. Nature Rev. Genet. 12: 591.

Link to seminar:

http://group.szbk.u-szeged.hu/sysbiol/pal-csaba-lab-overview.html

Watch previous seminars on our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrX4IsZ8WIFcDa0ZmC7rcQg