No Evidence of Elevated Germline Mutation Accumulation Under Oxidative Stress in Caenorhabditis elegans

• DOI: 10.1534/genetics.111.133660
• Publication Date: 2011-10-07T04:02:14Z
• Authors: Joanna Joyner-Matos; Laura C Bean; Heidi L Richardson; Tammy Sammeli; Charles F Baer
• Keywords: Strain (injury)

Variation in rates of molecular evolution has been attributed to numerous, interrelated causes, including metabolic rate, body size, and generation time. Speculation concerning the influence rate on often invokes putative mutagenic effects oxidative stress. To isolate stress germline from time, other factors, we allowed mutations accumulate under relaxed selection for 125 generations two strains nematode Caenorhabditis elegans, canonical wild-type strain (N2) a mutant with elevated steady-state (mev-1). Contrary our expectation, mutational decline fitness did not differ between N2 mev-1. This result suggests that C. elegans are minor relative types mutations, such as errors during DNA replication. However, mev-1 MA lines go extinct more frequently than lines; some possible explanations difference extinction discussed.