Reproductive mode and the evolution of mutation rate

Abstract

The mutation rate is a fundamental force in evolution, modulating patterns of genetic variation, adaptation, and genome evolution throughout the tree of life. As such, many attempts have been made to explain its variation across species. Currently, the dominant theory of mutation rate evolution is the drift-barrier hypothesis. However, although this framework has received wide support across taxa, a substantial fraction of variation in mutation rate remains unexplained, and a major challenge persists in ruling out confounding factors in phylogenetic comparisons. In this review, we propose that transitions in reproductive mode may also be a major factor governing the evolution of mutation rate, through their effects on recombination rates, genetic linkage, and effective population size. We synthesize theoretical predictions and empirical evidence bearing on these effects, highlighting major gaps in our understanding of how reproductive mode influences mutation rate evolution. We argue that progress in this area is now primarily constrained by the need for more realistic theoretical modeling, experimental evolution work, and direct, comparable empirical estimates of mutation rate across diverse taxa and reproductive strategies. Expanding such estimates across taxa will be essential for testing theory and for understanding the extent to which reproductive modes modulate mutation rate evolution.

Evolutionary rescue through mutation- versus recombination-rate evolution
A. Longcamp, A. L. Dapper
bioRxiv4 Oct 2026PreprintCC BY-NC-NDFull textEvolutionary biologybioRxiv
A diffusion model of viral evolution predicts mutation fitness and evolutionary trajectories
J. Wu, X. Ding, A. Wu
bioRxiv16 Sep 2026PreprintAll rights reservedFull textBioinformatics & computational biologybioRxiv
Go and grow: coordinated evolution of vegetative and reproductive traits facilitated niche diversification in Thymelaeaceae
Hugo Bonnaudet, Olivier Maurin, Félix Forest +6
Annals of Botany10 Jul 2026Peer-reviewedPublisher termsFull textEvolutionary biologyPMC
Causal inference clarifies the roles of background selection and mutation rate variation in shaping human genetic diversity
G. V. Barroso, N. W. Collier, C. Di +2
bioRxiv2 Jun 2026PreprintCC BY-NCFull text1 citedEvolutionary biologybioRxiv
Exploring the influence of mutation rates with stochastic perturbations on genome evolution
J. Bohlin, J. H.- O. Pettersson
bioRxiv21 Oct 2026PreprintCC BYFull textEvolutionary biologybioRxiv

Cite

BibTeX RIS

BibTeX

@misc{lafond2026reproductive,
  title = {{Reproductive mode and the evolution of mutation rate}},
  author = {Joëlle Lafond and Srivarshini Saravanakumar and Maurine Neiman and Rebecca A. Zufall and Stephen Wright and Ricardo B. R. Azevedo},
  howpublished = {EcoEvoRxiv},
  year = {2026},
  month = sep,
  doi = {10.32942/x2nt2j},
  url = {https://ecoevorxiv.org/repository/view/14788/},
  note = {CC BY 4.0},
}

RIS

TY  - UNPB
TI  - Reproductive mode and the evolution of mutation rate
AU  - Joëlle Lafond
AU  - Srivarshini Saravanakumar
AU  - Maurine Neiman
AU  - Rebecca A. Zufall
AU  - Stephen Wright
AU  - Ricardo B. R. Azevedo
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/09/05
PB  - EcoEvoRxiv
DO  - 10.32942/x2nt2j
UR  - https://ecoevorxiv.org/repository/view/14788/
AB  - The mutation rate is a fundamental force in evolution, modulating patterns of genetic variation, adaptation, and genome evolution throughout the tree of life. As such, many attempts have been made to explain its variation across species. Currently, the dominant theory of mutation rate evolution is the drift-barrier hypothesis. However, although this framework has received wide support across taxa, a substantial fraction of variation in mutation rate remains unexplained, and a major challenge persists in ruling out confounding factors in phylogenetic comparisons. In this review, we propose that transitions in reproductive mode may also be a major factor governing the evolution of mutation rate, through their effects on recombination rates, genetic linkage, and effective population size. We synthesize theoretical predictions and empirical evidence bearing on these effects, highlighting major gaps in our understanding of how reproductive mode influences mutation rate evolution. We argue that progress in this area is now primarily constrained by the need for more realistic theoretical modeling, experimental evolution work, and direct, comparable empirical estimates of mutation rate across diverse taxa and reproductive strategies. Expanding such estimates across taxa will be essential for testing theory and for understanding the extent to which reproductive modes modulate mutation rate evolution.
ER  -

Abstract

Related

Cite