6533b82cfe1ef96bd128ea86

RESEARCH PRODUCT

Spontaneous rate of clonal mutations inDaphnia galeata

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AbstractMutations are the ultimate source of heritable variation and therefore the fuel for evolution, but direct estimates exist only for few species. We estimated the spontaneous nucleotide mutation rate among clonal generations in the waterfleaDaphnia galeatawith a short term mutation accumulation approach. Individuals from eighteen mutation accumulation lines over five generations were deep genome sequenced to count de novo mutations that were not present in a pool of F1 individuals, representing the parental genotype. We identified 12 new nucleotide mutations in 90 clonal generational passages. This resulted in an estimated haploid mutation rate of 0.745 x 10-9(95% c.f. 0.39 x 10-9− 1.26 x 10-9), which is slightly lower than recent estimates for otherDaphniaspecies. We discuss the implications for the population genetics of Cladocerans.