# Does adaption require a complex symphony or just “three chords and the truth?”

## TL;DR

A study on yeast shows that adaptation has predictable effects on growth across different environments due to a limited number of key mutations.

## Contribution

The study reveals that adaptation in yeast involves only a few latent fitness-impacting phenotypes, making collateral effects predictable.

## Key findings

- Selected mutations in yeast affected only a few latent fitness-impacting phenotypes.
- Growth across environments was found to be fairly predictable based on these mutations.

## Abstract

How predictable are the collateral effects of adaptation? A new study of evolved yeast strains published in PLOS Biology suggests that growth across environments is fairly predictable because the selected mutations only affected a few latent fitness-impacting phenotypes.

How predictable are the collateral effects of adaptation? This Primer explores a new PLOS Biology study of evolved yeast strains suggesting that growth across environments is fairly predictable because the selected mutations only affected a few latent fitness-impacting phenotypes.