scholarly journals Complexities of Viral Mutation Rates

2018 ◽  
Vol 92 (14) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kayla M. Peck ◽  
Adam S. Lauring

ABSTRACT Many viruses evolve rapidly. This is due, in part, to their high mutation rates. Mutation rate estimates for over 25 viruses are currently available. Here, we review the population genetics of virus mutation rates. We specifically cover the topics of mutation rate estimation, the forces that drive the evolution of mutation rates, and how the optimal mutation rate can be context-dependent.

2009 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 394-396 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rafael Sanjuán ◽  
Patricia Agudelo-Romero ◽  
Santiago F. Elena

It is generally accepted that mutation rates of RNA viruses are inherently high due to the lack of proofreading mechanisms. However, direct estimates of mutation rate are surprisingly scarce, in particular for plant viruses. Here, based on the analysis of in vivo mutation frequencies in tobacco etch virus , we calculate an upper-bound mutation rate estimation of 3×10 −5 per site and per round of replication; a value which turns out to be undistinguishable from the methodological error. Nonetheless, the value is barely on the lower side of the range accepted for RNA viruses, although in good agreement with the only direct estimate obtained for other plant viruses. These observations suggest that, perhaps, differences in the selective pressures operating during plant virus evolution may have driven their mutation rates towards values lower than those characteristic of other RNA viruses infecting bacteria or animals.


2010 ◽  
Vol 84 (19) ◽  
pp. 9733-9748 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rafael Sanjuán ◽  
Miguel R. Nebot ◽  
Nicola Chirico ◽  
Louis M. Mansky ◽  
Robert Belshaw

ABSTRACT Accurate estimates of virus mutation rates are important to understand the evolution of the viruses and to combat them. However, methods of estimation are varied and often complex. Here, we critically review over 40 original studies and establish criteria to facilitate comparative analyses. The mutation rates of 23 viruses are presented as substitutions per nucleotide per cell infection (s/n/c) and corrected for selection bias where necessary, using a new statistical method. The resulting rates range from 10−8 to10−6 s/n/c for DNA viruses and from 10−6 to 10−4 s/n/c for RNA viruses. Similar to what has been shown previously for DNA viruses, there appears to be a negative correlation between mutation rate and genome size among RNA viruses, but this result requires further experimental testing. Contrary to some suggestions, the mutation rate of retroviruses is not lower than that of other RNA viruses. We also show that nucleotide substitutions are on average four times more common than insertions/deletions (indels). Finally, we provide estimates of the mutation rate per nucleotide per strand copying, which tends to be lower than that per cell infection because some viruses undergo several rounds of copying per cell, particularly double-stranded DNA viruses. A regularly updated virus mutation rate data set will be available at www.uv.es/rsanjuan/virmut .


GigaScience ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (10) ◽  
Author(s):  
Susanne P Pfeifer

Abstract This commentary investigates the important role of computational pipeline and parameter choices in performing mutation rate estimation, using the recent article published in this journal by Bergeron et al. entitled “The germline mutational process in rhesus macaque and its implications for phylogenetic dating” as an illustrative example.


Meta Gene ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
pp. 150-156 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhuo Zhao ◽  
Jie Zhang ◽  
Hua Wang ◽  
Zhi-Peng Liu ◽  
Ming Liu ◽  
...  

1967 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-34 ◽  
Author(s):  
Motoo Kimura

Evolutionary factors which tend to decrease the mutation rate through natural selection and those which tend to increase the mutation rate are discussed from the standpoint of population genetics. The author's theory of optimum mutation rate based on the principle of minimum genetic load is re-examined, assuming that mutation rate is adjusted in the course of evolution in such a way that the sum of mutational and substitutional load is minimized. Another hypothesis is also examined that only selection toward lowering the mutation rate is effective and the present mutation rate in each organism represents the physical or physiological limit that may be attained by natural selection.The possibility cannot be excluded that the spontaneous mutation rate is near the minimum that may be attained under the present mode of organization of the genetic material, and at the same time is not very far from the optimum in the sense of minimizing the genetic load.


2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhuo Zhao ◽  
Hua Wang ◽  
Jie Zhang ◽  
Zhi-Peng Liu ◽  
Ming Liu ◽  
...  

STR, short trandem repeats, is well known as a type of powerful genetic marker and widely used in studying human population genetics. Compared with the conventional genetic markers, the mutation rate of STR is higher. Additionally, the mutations of STR loci do not lead to genetic inconsistencies between the genotypes of parents and children; therefore, the analysis of STR mutation is more suited to assess the population mutation. In this study, we focused on 15 autosomal STR loci (D8S1179, D21S11, D7S820, CSF1PO, D3S1358, TH01, D13S317, D16S539, D2S1338, D19S433, vWA, TPOX, D18S51, D5S818, FGA). DNA samples from a total of 42416 unrelated healthy individuals (19037 trios) from the population of Mainland China collected between Jan 2012 and May 2014 were successfully investigated. In our study, the allele frequencies, paternal mutation rates, maternal mutation rates and average mutation rates were detected in the 15 STR loci. Furthermore, we also investigated the relationship between paternal ages, maternal ages, pregnant time, area and average mutation rate. We found that paternal mutation rate is higher than maternal mutation rate and the paternal, maternal, and average mutation rates have a positive correlation with paternal ages, maternal ages and times respectively. Additionally, the average mutation rates of coastal areas are higher than that of inland areas. Overall, these results suggest that the 15 autosomal STR loci can provide highly informative polymorphic data for population genetic assessment in Mainland China, as well as confirm and extend the application of STR analysis in population genetics.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Haoliang Fan ◽  
Ying Zeng ◽  
Weiwei Wu ◽  
Hong Liu ◽  
Quyi Xu ◽  
...  

Genetics ◽  
2001 ◽  
Vol 159 (2) ◽  
pp. 853-867 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Donnelly ◽  
Magnus Nordborg ◽  
Paul Joyce

Abstract Methods for simulating samples and sample statistics, under mutation-selection-drift equilibrium for a class of nonneutral population genetics models, and for evaluating the likelihood surface, in selection and mutation parameters, are developed and applied for observed data. The methods apply to large populations in settings in which selection is weak, in the sense that selection intensities, like mutation rates, are of the order of the inverse of the population size. General diploid selection is allowed, but the approach is currently restricted to models, such as the infinite alleles model and certain K-models, in which the type of a mutant allele does not depend on the type of its progenitor allele. The simulation methods have considerable advantages over available alternatives. No other methods currently seem practicable for approximating likelihood surfaces.


2016 ◽  
Vol 283 (1841) ◽  
pp. 20161785 ◽  
Author(s):  
Long Wang ◽  
Yanchun Zhang ◽  
Chao Qin ◽  
Dacheng Tian ◽  
Sihai Yang ◽  
...  

Mutation rates and recombination rates vary between species and between regions within a genome. What are the determinants of these forms of variation? Prior evidence has suggested that the recombination might be mutagenic with an excess of new mutations in the vicinity of recombination break points. As it is conjectured that domesticated taxa have higher recombination rates than wild ones, we expect domesticated taxa to have raised mutation rates. Here, we use parent–offspring sequencing in domesticated and wild peach to ask (i) whether recombination is mutagenic, and (ii) whether domesticated peach has a higher recombination rate than wild peach. We find no evidence that domesticated peach has an increased recombination rate, nor an increased mutation rate near recombination events. If recombination is mutagenic in this taxa, the effect is too weak to be detected by our analysis. While an absence of recombination-associated mutation might explain an absence of a recombination–heterozygozity correlation in peach, we caution against such an interpretation.


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