Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • News & Views
  • Published:

Microbial genetics

The tinkerer's evolving tool-box

Nature volume 387, pages 659–662 (1997)Cite this article

The neo-darwinian synthesis resulted from the realization that mendelian inheritance changed the darwinian model of biological evolution. Darwin assumed that parents' genes blend into each other in their offspring. This was problematical because a fitter variant's genes would blend upon mating, and become diluted into the gene pool. Mendelism solved this paradox by providing a mechanism for descent, whereby individual alleles remain intact and are not blended away through mating. This example shows that knowledge of the specifics of genetics — that is, the mechanisms by which variants are generated — sometimes has a profound effect on evolutionary theory.

Another example of this is now provided by two papers on pages 700and of this issue. In a theoretical study, Taddei et al.1 predict that in asexual, clonal populations of Escherichia coli, the ability to generate mutator alleles (which can lead to an increase in mutation rate) increases the rate at which more fit individuals arise in the population. This occurs even if the mutator alleles remain at a very low frequency. Sniegowski and colleagues2 have found that three of 12 independently propagated clonal populations of E. coli, which were serially cultured over 10,000 generations and thereby subjected to alternating periods of growth and stasis, had a mutator phenotype which was due to defects in genes involved in DNA repair.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

References

  1. Taddei, F. et al. Nature 387, 700–702 ( 1997).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Sniegowski, P. D., Gerrish, P. J. & Lenski, R. E. Nature 387, 703– 705 (1997).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Ruiz-Rubio, M. & Bridges, B. A. Mol. Gen. Genet. 208, 542–548 (1987).

    Google Scholar 

  4. Magnasco, M. & Thaler, D. S. Phys. Lett. A 221, 287-292 (1996).

  5. Deitsch, K. W., Moxon, E. R. & Wellems, T. E. Microbiol. Mol. Biol. Rev. (in the press).

  6. Moxon, E. R., Rainey, P. B., Nowak, M. A. & Lenski, R. E. Curr. Biol. 4, 24–33 ( 1994).

    Google Scholar 

  7. Thaler, D. S. Trends Ecol. Evol. 9, 108–110 (1994).

    Google Scholar 

  8. Bridges, B. A. Nature 387, 557–558 ( 1997).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Wright, B. E. FEBS Lett. 402, 4–8 ( 1997).

    Google Scholar 

  10. Cairns, J., Overbaugh, J. & Miller, S. Nature 335, 142– 145 (1988).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  11. Hall, B. G. Genetics 126, 5–16 ( 1990).

    Google Scholar 

  12. LeClerc, J. E., Li, B., Payne, W. L. & Cebula, T. A. Science 274, 1208–1211 (1996).

    Google Scholar 

  13. Lipsitch, M. & Levin, B. R. Antimicrob. Agents Chemother. 41, 363–373 (1997).

    Google Scholar 

  14. Leigh Brown, A. J. & Richman, D. D. Nature Med. 3, 268–271 ( 1997).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  15. Nowell, P. C. Science 194, 23–28 ( 1976).

    Google Scholar 

  16. Thaler, D. S. & Messmer, B. T. in Encyclopedia of Molecular Biology and Medicine Vol. 2 (ed. Myers, R.) 407-414 (VCH, New York, 1996).

  17. Thaler, D. S. Science 264, 224–225 ( 1994).

    Google Scholar 

  18. Leigh, E. G. Genetics 73 (Suppl.) 1-8 (1973).

  19. Jacob, F. Science 196, 1161–1166 ( 1977).

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Oxford Department of Paediatrics and Institute of Molecular Medicine, John Radcliffe Hospital, OX3 9DU, Oxford, UK

    E. Richard Moxon

  2. Sackler Laboratory of Molecular Genetics and Informatics, The Rockefeller University, 1230 York Avenue, New York, 10021-6399, New York, USA

    David S. Thaler

Authors
  1. E. Richard Moxon
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. David S. Thaler
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Moxon, E., Thaler, D. The tinkerer's evolving tool-box. Nature 387, 659–662 (1997). https://doi.org/10.1038/42607

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/42607

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing