The traveling wave approach to asexual evolution: Muller's ratchet and speed of adaptation

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dc.creatorRouzine, Igor M.
dc.creatorBrunet, Eric
dc.creatorWilke, Claus O.
dc.date2007-07-23
dc.date2007-10-10
dc.date.accessioned2026-07-07T08:49:25Z
dc.date.available2026-07-07T08:49:25Z
dc.descriptionWe use traveling-wave theory to derive expressions for the rate of accumulation of deleterious mutations under Muller's ratchet and the speed of adaptation under positive selection in asexual populations. Traveling-wave theory is a semi-deterministic description of an evolving population, where the bulk of the population is modeled using deterministic equations, but the class of the highest-fitness genotypes, whose evolution over time determines loss or gain of fitness in the population, is given proper stochastic treatment. We derive improved methods to model the highest-fitness class (the stochastic edge) for both Muller's ratchet and adaptive evolution, and calculate analytic correction terms that compensate for inaccuracies which arise when treating discrete fitness classes as a continuum. We show that traveling wave theory makes excellent predictions for the rate of mutation accumulation in the case of Muller's ratchet, and makes good predictions for the speed of adaptation in a very broad parameter range. We predict the adaptation rate to grow logarithmically in the population size until the population size is extremely large.
dc.description50 pages, 8 figures
dc.identifierhttps://arxiv.org/abs/0707.3469
dc.identifierhttp://arxiv.org/abs/0707.3469
dc.identifierdoi:10.1016/j.tpb.2007.10.004
dc.identifier.urihttp://salesiana.dossiersoluciones.com/handle/123456789/144289
dc.subjectPopulations and Evolution
dc.titleThe traveling wave approach to asexual evolution: Muller's ratchet and speed of adaptation
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