Fluctuation analysis: the probability distribution of the number of mutants under different conditions.
Open Access
- 1 January 1990
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Oxford University Press (OUP) in Genetics
- Vol. 124 (1) , 175-185
- https://doi.org/10.1093/genetics/124.1.175
Abstract
In the 47 years since fluctuation analysis was introduced by Luria and Delbrück, it has been widely used to calculate mutation rates. Up to now, in spite of the importance of such calculations, the probability distribution of the number of mutants that will appear in a fluctuation experiment has been known only under the restrictive, and possibly unrealistic, assumptions: (1) that the mutation rate is exactly proportional to the growth rate and (2) that all mutants grow at a rate that is a constant multiple of the growth rate of the original cells. In this paper, we approach the distribution of the number of mutants from a new point of view that will enable researchers to calculate the distribution to be expected using assumptions that they believe to be closer to biological reality. The new idea is to classify mutations according to the number of observable mutants that derive from the mutation when the culture is selectively plated. This approach also simplifies the calculations in situations where two, or many, kinds of mutation may occur in a single culture.This publication has 4 references indexed in Scilit:
- Mutation and selection in bacterial populations: alternatives to the hypothesis of directed mutation.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 1989
- The origin of mutantsNature, 1988
- A deterministic approach for the estimation of mutation rates in cultured mammalian cellsMutation Research - Fundamental and Molecular Mechanisms of Mutagenesis, 1985
- Statistical concepts in the theory of bacterial mutationEpidemiology and Infection, 1953