Merrikh Houra
Department of Microbiology, Health Sciences Building - J-wing, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USA.
Trends Microbiol. 2017 Jul;25(7):515-521. doi: 10.1016/j.tim.2017.01.008. Epub 2017 Feb 16.
Evolution could potentially be accelerated if an organism could selectively increase the mutation rate of specific genes that are actively under positive selection. Recently, a mechanism that cells can use to target rapid evolution to specific genes was discovered. This mechanism is driven by gene orientation-dependent encounters between DNA replication and transcription machineries. These encounters increase mutagenesis in lagging-strand genes, where replication-transcription conflicts are severe. Due to the orientation and transcription-dependent nature of this process, conflict-driven mutagenesis can be used by cells to spatially (gene-specifically) and temporally (only upon transcription induction) regulate the rate of gene evolution. Here, I summarize recent findings on this topic, and discuss the implications of increasing mutagenesis rates and accelerating evolution through active mechanisms.
如果生物体能够选择性地提高正处于正选择作用下的特定基因的突变率,那么进化可能会被加速。最近,发现了一种细胞可用于将快速进化靶向特定基因的机制。这种机制是由DNA复制和转录机器之间基因方向依赖性的相遇所驱动的。这些相遇增加了滞后链基因中的诱变作用,在这些基因中复制-转录冲突很严重。由于这个过程的方向和转录依赖性本质,冲突驱动的诱变作用可被细胞用于在空间上(基因特异性地)和时间上(仅在转录诱导时)调节基因进化的速率。在这里,我总结了关于这个主题的最新发现,并讨论了通过主动机制提高诱变率和加速进化的意义。