Mutations as Levy flights

TL;DR

This paper proposes that mutations in biological systems can be modeled as Levy flights, characterized by both small-scale substitutions and large DNA rearrangements, supported by empirical data from E. coli evolution and human genomic studies.

Contribution

It introduces a novel Levy flight model for mutations, combining different mutation types and providing estimations for their rates and size distributions.

Findings

Mutations can be modeled as Levy flights in mutation space.

Estimated rates for single-base substitutions and large rearrangements.

Distribution function for large DNA rearrangements.

Abstract

Data from a long time evolution experiment with Escherichia Coli and from a large study on copy number variations in subjects with european ancestry are analyzed in order to argue that mutations can be described as Levy flights in the mutation space. These Levy flights have at least two components: random single-base substitutions and large DNA rearrangements. From the data, we get estimations for the time rates of both events and the size distribution function of large rearrangements.