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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2011 Dec 1.
Published in final edited form as: Curr Opin Cell Biol. 2010 Jul 23;22(6):809–815. doi: 10.1016/j.ceb.2010.06.003

Figure 2. Phenotypic leaps produced by aneuploidy during adaptive walks on a fitness landscape.

Figure 2

(A) When a cell (represented by a hiker) is atop or very close to a fitness peak, point mutations with small effects on fitness normally allow the cell to stay in the vicinity of the peak, while large-effect mutations such as aneuploidy typically push the cells towards regions of lower fitness. (B) When a cell is situated in a fitness valley far away from a peak (because of either a physiological growth control mechanism or a strong genetic or environmental perturbation), small-effect mutations rarely bring significant fitness gain in a single step, whereas the large phenotypic leaps brought about by aneuploidy can in some cases bring the cell much closer toward a nearby fitness peak, enabling immediate fitness advantage.