2009/02/25 by Brad Davis, Art F. Y. Poon, Michael C. Whitlock · 1 citation
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · #Evolution and Genetic Dynamics #Genomics and Phylogenetic Studies #CRISPR and Genetic Engineering
paper · doi:10.1098/rspb.2008.1846
openalex publication_date 2009/02/25 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Compensatory mutations improve fitness in genotypes that contain deleterious mutations but have no beneficial effects otherwise. As such, compensatory mutations represent a very specific form of epistasis. We show that intragenic compensatory mutations occur non-randomly over gene sequence. Compensatory mutations are more likely to appear at some sites than others. Moreover, the sites of compensatory mutations are more likely than expected by chance to be near the site of the original deleterious mutation. Furthermore, compensatory mutations tend to occur more commonly in certain regions of the protein even when controlling for clustering around the site of the deleterious mutation. These results suggest that compensatory evolution at the protein level is partially predictable and may be convergent.