A phylogenomic approach reveals a low somatic mutation rate in a long-lived plant

• Published in: Proceedings of the Royal Society. B, Biological sciences Vol. 287; no. 1922; p. 20192364
• Main Authors: Orr, Adam J., Padovan, Amanda, Kainer, David, Külheim, Carsten, Bromham, Lindell, Bustos-Segura, Carlos, Foley, William, Haff, Tonya, Hsieh, Ji-Fan, Morales-Suarez, Alejandro, Cartwright, Reed A., Lanfear, Robert
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Royal Society, The 11.03.2020; The Royal Society
• Subjects: Biochemistry, Molecular Biology; Evolution; Genomics; Life Sciences; mutation rate; somatic mutation; plants; bioinformatics; genetics; Evolution Subject Areas: evolution genetics genomics somatic mutation bioinformatics plants mutation rate; genomics somatic mutation; Evolution Subject Areas: evolution
• ISSN: 0962-8452; 1471-2954; 1471-2954
• DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2019.2364

Somatic mutations can have important effects on the life history, ecology, and evolution of plants, but the rate at which they accumulate is poorly understood and difficult to measure directly. Here, we develop a method to measure somatic mutations in individual plants and use it to estimate the somatic mutation rate in a large, long-lived, phenotypically mosaic Eucalyptus melliodora tree. Despite being 100 times larger than Arabidopsis, this tree has a per-generation mutation rate only ten times greater, which suggests that this species may have evolved mechanisms to reduce the mutation rate per unit of growth. This adds to a growing body of evidence that illuminates the correlated evolutionary shifts in mutation rate and life history in plants.