Elsevier

Endeavour

Volume 21, Issue 1, 1997, Pages 36-40
Endeavour

Article
Evolutionary tuning knobs

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0160-9327(97)01005-3Get rights and content

Abstract

Spontaneous mutations are the ultimate source of all natural genetic variation upon which evolution depends. Recent observations have revealed that many genes are associated with mutation-prone DNA tracts, each consisting of a simple motif repeated over and over in tandem. These simple sequence repeats (SSRs) may provide a previously unrecognized source of abundant quantitative genetic variation based on mutations that are frequent, site-specific and reversible, yet seldom substantially deleterious. Such sequences may be evolutionarily significant, equipping genomes and individual genes with adjustable ‘tuning knobs’ for efficient adaptation.

References (33)

  • R. Deka et al.

    Genomics

    (1994)
  • E.R. Moxon et al.

    Curr. Biol.

    (1994)
  • Y. Kashi et al.

    Trends Genet.

    (1997)
  • D. Tautz et al.

    Curr. Opin. Genet. Dev.

    (1994)
  • P Jarne et al.

    Trends Ecol. Evol.

    (1996)
  • D.C. Queller et al.

    Trends Ecol. Evol.

    (1993)
  • R. Stallings

    Genomics

    (1995)
  • M.L. Glassman et al.

    Med. Hypotheses

    (1996)
  • D.J. Futuyma

    Evolutionary Biology

    (1986)
  • N.V. Rothwell

    Understanding Genetics

    (1988)
  • J. Maynard Smith

    Evolutionary Genetics

    (1989)
  • M. Ridley
  • G.C. Williams

    Adaptation and Natural Selection

    (1966)
  • D. Field et al.
  • H.-P. Gerber et al.

    Science

    (1994)
  • P. Künzler et al.

    Biol. Chem. Hoppe-Seyler

    (1995)
  • Cited by (0)

    1

    David G. King, Ph.D. Is Associate Professor in the Department of Anatomy, School of Medicine, and the Department of Zoology, College of Science, at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. He graduated in biological sciences from Purdue University in 1970 and received his doctoral degree in neuroscience from the University of California at San Diego in 1975. After postdoctoral experience with Professor Robert Wyman at Yale University introduced him to neurogenetics, his curiosity about the exquisitely detailed construction of invertebrate nervous systems led to a deep interest in evolutionary processes.

    2

    Morris Soller, Ph.D. Is Professor of Genetics at the Alexander Silberman Life Sciences Institute, at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He received his bachelor's degree in agriculture in 1951 and his doctorate in animal breeding in 1956, both from Rutgers University. In 1996 he was elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science for contributions to quantitative trait locus mapping. He is a devotee of Jane Austen, and has a passionate interest in biblical exegesis.

    3

    Yechezkel Kashi, Ph.D. Received his bachelor's degree in 1982 from the Faculty of Agriculture of the Hebrew University, and his master's (1985) and doctorate (1991) in molecular genetics from the Genetics Department of Hebrew University, where he was a student of Professor Soller. After completing post-doctoral study at the laboratory of Professor Arthur Horwich at Yale University, he now has his own laboratory in the Department of Food Engineering and Biotechnology at the Israel Institute of Technology (The Technion), Haifa, Israel.

    View full text