What we're reading: Sorting out whole-genome duplication, adaptation without tradeoffs, and is science leaving its logistic growth phase?

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Finally, multiple sources of evidence indicate that [Paramecium] sexaurelia diverged from the two other lineages immediately following, or perhaps concurrent with, the recent WGD, with approximately half of gene losses between P. tetraurelia and P. sexaurelia representing divergent gene resolutions (i.e., silencing of alternative paralogs), as expected for random duplicate loss between these species.

McGee LW, EW Aitchison, SB Caudle, AJ Morrison, L Zheng, et al. 2014. Payoffs, not tradeoffs, in the adaptation of a virus to ostensibly conflicting selective pressures. PLoS Genetics 10(10): e1004611. doi: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1004611.

We selected for individual mutations under fluctuating selective pressures for a ssDNA microvirid bacteriophage by alternating selection for increased growth rate with selection on biophysical properties of the phage capsid in high-temperature or low-pH conditions. Surprisingly, none of the seven unique mutations identified showed a pleiotropic cost; they all improved both growth rate and pH or temperature stability, suggesting that single mutations even in a simple genetic system can simultaneously improve two distinct traits.

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