@article{draghi_mutational_2010,
Author = {Draghi, Jeremy A. and Parsons, Todd L. and Wagner,
Günter P. and Plotkin, Joshua B.},
Title = {Mutational robustness can facilitate adaptation},
Journal = {Nature},
Volume = {463},
Number = {7279},
Pages = {353--355},
abstract = {Robustness seems to be the opposite of evolvability.
If phenotypes are robust against mutation, we might
expect that a population will have difficulty adapting
to an environmental change, as several studies have
suggested. However, other studies contend that robust
organisms are more adaptable. A quantitative
understanding of the relationship between robustness
and evolvability will help resolve these conflicting
reports and will clarify outstanding problems in
molecular and experimental evolution, evolutionary
developmental biology and protein engineering. Here we
demonstrate, using a general population genetics model,
that mutational robustness can either impede or
facilitate adaptation, depending on the population
size, the mutation rate and the structure of the
fitness landscape. In particular, neutral diversity in
a robust population can accelerate adaptation as long
as the number of phenotypes accessible to an individual
by mutation is smaller than the total number of
phenotypes in the fitness landscape. These results
provide a quantitative resolution to a significant
ambiguity in evolutionary theory.},
doi = {10.1038/nature08694},
issn = {1476-4687},
language = {eng},
month = jan,
pmcid = {PMC3071712},
pmid = {20090752},
year = 2010
}