Benefits Depend on Context

摘要

Simple genetic interactions can often result in beneficial phenotypes under selection. However, examples of complex epistastic interactions (in which multiple genes interact, resulting in a nonadditive phenotype) and their selective effects are less well known (see the Perspective by Kryazhimskiy et al.). Khan et al. (p. 1193) examined the epistatic interactions throughout an entire genome by taking the first five mutations to appear in an experimentally evolving population of bacteria, and constructed strains carrying all combinations of these mutations.