IU research team captures extensive image of DNA mutation

A team of researchers from the College of Arts and Sciences and the School of Informatics and Computing has produced one of the most extensive images available to scientists of DNA mutation processes within an organism, according to a press release issued Monday.

The depiction offers new insight that adds to previously existing knowledge of molecular mutations and how quickly those changes can occur.

The team, led by biology professor Patricia Foster, analyzed changes in E. coli and found that the rate of mutations for the bacterial DNA was three times less than scientists previously believed.

“We know that even in the absence of natural selection, evolution will proceed because new mutations get fixed at random in the genome,” Foster said in the press release. “So, if we want to determine whether specific patterns of evolutionary change are driven by selection, knowledge of the expected pattern in the absence of selection is absolutely essential.”

Associate professor Haixu Tang, predoctoral researcher Heewook Lee and postdoctoral researcher Ellen Popodi contributed to the findings.

According to the press release, the research could allow forensic scientists to determine where a strain of bacteria originated.

The team’s research appears in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, according to the press release.

“Since mutations are the source of variation upon which natural selection acts, understanding the rate at which mutations occur and the molecular nature of spontaneous mutational changes leads us to a fuller understanding of evolution,” Foster said.

— Kirsten Clark