Their mutational variations to escape antiviral medication could be lethal, thus limiting the apparition of drug-resistant strains.
Although Attamyces genotypes differed between Atta nests in each population studied, we found no evidence of Attamyces polyculture within each of the surveyed Atta nests, with the exception of minor mutational variation that emerges during the continuous clonal propagation of Attamyces within nests of fungus-growing ants.
If neutral evolution is frequently acting in emergent patterns, as in the case of mutational variation or migration, both the emergence and the advantage of certain combinations are emphasized by the bacterial exposure to variable environments.
Although our study provided the largest mutation data set for MA line based mutational analysis to date, a much larger survey of mutational variation that includes MA lines derived from many dozens to hundreds of progenitor genotypes will be required to more broadly and effectively address the extent of mutational variation within and between related animal species.
This study provides important insights into the extent of mutational variation among related animal lineages, and the interrelationships between underlying mutation spectra and patterns of natural polymorphism at loci widely presumed to be neutral.
Domestic breeding relies upon exactly the same pool of mutational variation as natural selection.
We next analyzed patterns of mutational variation among and within chromosomes.
As in the case of mutational variation, many combinatorial products are probably neutral in stable environments and might eventually spread only driven by random genetic drift (Swithers et al. 2012; Król et al. 2013).
Functional coding regions and regulatory elements undergo purifying selection, whereas, intron sequences are less constrained and will display a higher degree of mutational variation between any two ecotypes/varieties.
Given that species evolution is largely driven by environmental change, and clearly influenced by population size, reproduction rates, and mutational variation, understanding the somatic evolution of cancers will require consideration of analogous factors.
