Evidence for elevated mutation rates in low-quality genotypes

The deleterious mutation rate plays a key role in a number of important topics in biology, from mating system evolution to human health. Despite this broad significance, the nature and causes of variation in mutation rate are poorly understood, especially in multicellular organisms. We test whether genetic quality, the presence or absence of deleterious alleles, affects the mutation rate in Drosophila melanogaster by using a modified mutation accumulation approach. We find evidence that genotypes constructed to carry deleterious "treatment" alleles on one chromosome during mutation accumulation experience an elevated mutation rate on a different chromosome. Further, this elevation is correlated with the effect of the treatment alleles on phenotypic condition, measured as body mass. Treatment alleles that reduce mass by 10% cause a doubling in the rate of mutational decline. Our results show that mutation rates are sensitive to genetic stress, such that individuals with low-quality genotypes will produce offspring of even lower genetic quality, in a mutational positive feedback loop. This type of variation in mutation rate is expected to alter a variety of predictions based on mutation load theory and accelerate adaptation to new environments. Positive mutational feedback could affect human health by increasing the rate of germline mutation, and possibly somatic mutation, in individuals of poor health because of genetic or environmental stress.