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. 1991 Nov;129(3):957–962. doi: 10.1093/genetics/129.3.957

Transient Mutators: A Semiquantitative Analysis of the Influence of Translation and Transcription Errors on Mutation Rates

J Ninio 1
PMCID: PMC1204761  PMID: 1752431

Abstract

A population of bacteria growing in a nonlimiting medium includes mutator bacteria and transient mutators defined as wild-type bacteria which, due to occasional transcription or translation errors, display a mutator phenotype. A semiquantitative theoretical analysis of the steady-state composition of an Escherichia coli population suggests that true strong genotypic mutators produce about 3 X 10(-3) of the single mutations arising in the population, while transient mutators produce at least 10% of the single mutations and more than 95% of the simultaneous double mutations. Numbers of mismatch repair proteins inherited by the offspring, proportions of lethal mutations and mortality rates are among the main parameters that influence the steady-state composition of the population. These results have implications for the experimental manipulation of mutation rates and the evolutionary fixation of frequent but nearly neutral mutations (e.g., synonymous codon substitutions).

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Selected References

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