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 AND VIEWS

Mutations matter even if proteins stay the same

Systematic editing of yeast genes to generate thousands of mutations indicates that, overall, the mutations have similar effects on yeast fitness regardless of whether they change the protein sequences encoded by the mutated genes.
  1. Nathaniel Sharp

    1. Nathaniel Sharp is in the Department of Genetics, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Madison, Wisconsin 53706, USA.

    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed  Google Scholar

Although some mutations in a gene alter the amino-acid sequence of the protein that the gene encodes, others — known as synonymous mutations — have no effect on protein sequence. Does it follow, then, that synonymous mutations are unimportant? Writing in Nature, Shen et al.1 present evidence that synonymous mutations are frequently just as harmful as the non-synonymous mutations that alter proteins, upending a common assumption about molecular evolution.

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Learn more

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

Nature 606, 657-659 (2022)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-022-01091-6

References

  1. Shen, X., Song, S., Li, C. & Zhang, J. Nature 606, 725–731 (2022).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Chamary, J. V., Parmley, J. L. & Hurst, L. D. Nature Rev. Genet. 7, 98–108 (2006).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  3. Sauna, Z. E. & Kimchi-Sarfaty, C. Nature Rev. Genet. 12, 683–691 (2011).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  4. Zhou, Z. et al. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 113, E6117–E6125 (2016).

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  5. Chen, S. et al. Mol. Biol. Evol. 34, 2944–2958 (2017).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  6. Kudla, G., Murray, A. W., Tollervey, D. & Plotkin, J. B. Science 324, 255–258 (2009).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  7. Presnyak, V. et al. Cell 160, 1111–1124 (2015).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  8. Kanaya, S., Yamada, Y., Kudo, Y. & Ikemura, T. Gene 238, 143–155 (1999).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  9. Kimura, M. Nature 267, 275–276 (1977).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  10. Hurst, L. D. Trends Genet. 18, 486–487 (2002).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Competing Interests

The author declares no competing interests.

Subjects

Latest on:

Nature Careers

Jobs

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

Search

Advanced search

Quick links