A repost of a recent post, but this work by @andydfarr.bsky.social, @peteralind.bsky.social and Christina Vasileiou, warrants it! Assaying mutation rates at promoters requires a special set of circumstances. Maybe promoters are generally more mutation-prone, but undetected through lack of assay?

Mutation rates vary within genomes.., sure, but: @andydfarr.bsky.social describes a single transcription-dependent C->T mutation in the promoter of rpoS that is ~5,000 times > background. Are promoters places where shit happens, or facilitators of adaptive change? journals.plos.org/plosgenetics...