Art Poon
Evolutionary consequences of mutation

office: Hut B6-3
mail: 6270 University Boulevard
Vancouver, BC CANADA V6T 1Z4

  • Hon BSc Biology (1998). University of Toronto, Canada.
  • MSc Zoology (2000). University of British Columbia, Canada.
  • PhD Biology (pending). University of California @ San Diego, USA.

RES

PUB

CON

LNK

research interests

I am interested in mutation as an evolutionary force. The generally held notion is that most mutations have adverse effects on the fitness of an organism -- that is to say, that most mutations are deleterious. Some of the most brilliant and ambitious experiments in the literature (read: Mukai!) have been devoted to quantifying this nature of mutation. Nevertheless, there remains much to be elucidated about the evolutionary consequences of recurrent mutation. My current research program focuses on the problem of genetic load -- i.e. the reduction in mean fitness -- in finite populations.

There is an abundance of molecular evidence that mutations can compensate for each other's effects. For example, the stem-loop structure of tRNA is sensitive to mutation but can be restored by additional mutations at other points on the sequence. Biological complexity at the molecular, biochemical, regulatory and developmental levels virtually guarantees some degree of compensation.

Mutational models in evolutionary biology, however, do not usually regard compensatory mutation as an important factor. I have found that changing the assumptions of the mutational model such that compensatory mutations are frequent qualitatively changes the predictions of the model. This was carried out for a model of the load caused by fixed deleterious mutations in finite populations.

The next step, then, is to determine whether compensatory mutation is a frequent or rare biological phenomenon. My next project is to perform a mutation accumulation experiment that estimates this rate. There is some indication that compensatory mutations arise at an appreciable rate in a recent experiment carried out by Burch and Chao on the RNA virus phi6.

selected publications

  • Poon and Otto. 2000. Compensating for our load of mutations: Freezing the meltdown of small populations. Evolution, in press.

contact information

mail: 6270 University Blvd., Vancouver BC. V6T 1Z4.
e-mail: poon@zoology.ubc.ca

ICQ: 673 768 62

homepage: quincy_free.tripod.com

links

EDG - Evolution Discussion Group @ UBC

A weekly paper discussion group on current evolutionary biology, convening at the Department of Zoology, UBC.
Canadian Society for Ecology and Evolution
"A non-partisan group of practising ecologists and evolutionary biologists throughout Canada."
"Some Modest Advice for Graduate Students"
Academic wisdom from Stephen C. Stearns. Read this now.
American Naturalist
A monthly periodical produced "for the American Society of Naturalists by the University of Chicago Press". Lots of accessible theory, good evolutionary biology and some natural history to keep things real. My favorite journal.
Journals in Ecology and Evolution
A comprehensive list of links to academic journals in ecology and evolutionary biology maintained by my supervisor at UBC. Some of the links may be broken, but it is useful to have all the titles in one place.
PHYLIP homepage
Even those in the know forget where to download what is arguably the most comprehensive software package for manipulating molecular evolutionary data.
Numerical Recipes Online
The most useful programming guide on my shelf, available in web-form as PostScript or PDF files. Available for C, Fortran and Pascal. If you are programming your own simulations, you need this reference.