Temperature dependence of spontaneous mutation rates
- 1Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre, 60325 Frankfurt am Main, Germany;
- 2Institute of Zoology, University of Cologne, 50674 Cologne, Germany;
- 3LOEWE Centre for Translational Biodiversity Genomics, Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre, 60325 Frankfurt am Main, Germany;
- 4Institute for Organismic and Molecular Evolution, Johannes Gutenberg University, 55128 Mainz, Germany
Abstract
Mutation is the source of genetic variation and the fundament of evolution. Temperature has long been suggested to have a direct impact on realized spontaneous mutation rates. If mutation rates vary in response to environmental conditions, such as the variation of the ambient temperature through space and time, they should no longer be described as species-specific constants. By combining mutation accumulation with whole-genome sequencing in a multicellular organism, we provide empirical support to reject the null hypothesis of a constant, temperature-independent mutation rate. Instead, mutation rates depended on temperature in a U-shaped manner with increasing rates toward both temperature extremes. This relation has important implications for mutation-dependent processes in molecular evolution, processes shaping the evolution of mutation rates, and even the evolution of biodiversity as such.
Footnotes
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[Supplemental material is available for this article.]
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Article published online before print. Article, supplemental material, and publication date are at https://www.genome.org/cgi/doi/10.1101/gr.275168.120.
- Received December 21, 2020.
- Accepted July 21, 2021.
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