The distribution of fitness effects of nonsynonymous mutations varies phylogenetically across animals

The useful part

Lohmueller The distribution of fitness effects (DFE) describes the selection coefficients of newly arising mutations and fundamentally influences population genetic processes. However, the extent and mechanisms of differences in the DFE for non-synonymous mutations have not been systematically investigated across species with divergent phylogenetic histories and ecologies. Here, we inferred the DFE in natural populations of 11 animal (sub)species, including humans, mice, fin whales, vaquitas, wolves, collared flycatchers, pied flycatchers, halictid bees, Drosophila, and mosquitoes.

How it works

• Further, the DFE co-varies with phylogeny, such that the mean mutation effects are more similar in closely related species (Pagel's λ = 0.84, P = 0.01).
• FGM predicts that mutations are more deleterious in complex organisms, while strongly deleterious mutations occur more frequently in smaller populations.
• Our study demonstrates strong phylogenetic signal in the evol...
• Next, we investigated whether various summary statistics of the DFE were related to variation in life-history traits across these organisms.
• We found some support for genome size, body mass, and long-term effective population size being correlated with the DFE.

Details worth keeping

by Meixi Lin, Sneha Chakraborty, Carlos Eduardo G.