Repeatability and contingency in the evolution of a key innovation in phage lambda.
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Meyer JR
PROVIDER: S-EPMC3306806 | biostudies-literature | 2012 Jan
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
Publications
Repeatability and contingency in the evolution of a key innovation in phage lambda.
Meyer Justin R JR Dobias Devin T DT Weitz Joshua S JS Barrick Jeffrey E JE Quick Ryan T RT Lenski Richard E RE
Science (New York, N.Y.) 20120101 6067
The processes responsible for the evolution of key innovations, whereby lineages acquire qualitatively new functions that expand their ecological opportunities, remain poorly understood. We examined how a virus, bacteriophage λ, evolved to infect its host, Escherichia coli, through a novel pathway. Natural selection promoted the fixation of mutations in the virus's host-recognition protein, J, that improved fitness on the original receptor, LamB, and set the stage for other mutations that allowe ...[more]
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