Mutations as Levy flights

Dario A Leon,Augusto Gonzalez

doi:10.1038/s41598-021-88012-1

Abstract

Data from a long time evolution experiment with Escherichia Coli and from a large study on copy number variations in subjects with European ancestry are analyzed in order to argue that mutations can be described as Levy flights in the mutation space. These Levy flights have at least two components: random single-base substitutions and large DNA rearrangements. From the data, we get estimations for the time rates of both events and the size distribution function of large rearrangements.

Highlights

Data from a long time evolution experiment with Escherichia Coli and from a large study on copy number variations in subjects with European ancestry are analyzed in order to argue that mutations can be described as Levy flights in the mutation space
The main result of the paper is that in δi we shall distinguish at least two kinds of transformations: SPMs and large rearrangements, the lengths of the latter are distributed according to a stable Levy law
The data on SPMs and large rearrangements in bacterial DNA in the course of 50,000 generations of evolution seem to support a picture in which both kinds of events occurs with similar rates[17]

Summary

Introduction

Data from a long time evolution experiment with Escherichia Coli and from a large study on copy number variations in subjects with European ancestry are analyzed in order to argue that mutations can be described as Levy flights in the mutation space. We use data from a long-term evolution experiment (LTEE) with E. coli populations[6] in order to get the rate of both, point mutations and large chromosomal rearrangement events in the evolution of this bacterium.

Results

Conclusion