More complex biological systems evolve more freely: Interactions between mutations lead to unexpected result | Study published in eLife
Institute of Science and Technology Austria
Evolution acts on changes in the phenotype, which occur when mutations change the underlying genotype. Researchers at the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (IST Austria) found that in a gene regulatory system in the bacterium Escherichia coli, the more components that are mutated, the more freely the system can evolve. When 1+1 does not equal 2 They found that the system evolves more freely because mutations in the two components interact with each other, a phenomenon they call intermolecular epistasis. This means that mutations interact, giving the whole system more freedom to change and evolve. In this study, the researchers give a mechanistic understanding of how the mutations in two different molecules interact, explains Mato Lagator: Most excitingly, we show that – in this gene regulatory system – most of the epistasis arises from the genetic structure of the system.