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Figure 1 | BMC Evolutionary Biology

Figure 1

From: The impact of population size on the evolution of asexual microbes on smooth versus rugged fitness landscapes

Figure 1

Schematic evolution of large and small asexual populations. Top panels: A large population quickly generates all possible beneficial 1-step mutations, the fittest of which (represented by the thick arrow) is most likely to become fixed. In this example, the newly fixed mutant only has access to deleterious mutations that reduce fitness, it is trapped on a local fitness peak. Bottom panels: Small populations have reduced access to beneficial mutations. This can lead to the fixation of a mutant with intermediate fitness, which has access to an even higher fitness peak (dashed arrow). This allows the small population to eventually reach a higher level of fitness than the large population, albeit at a slower speed.

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