Potentiating mutation

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A potentiating mutation is one that, while not affecting the organism in itself, can later be utilized by a further mutation to produce a beneficial effect. An example of this can be found in duplicate genes; initially this mutation may have no effect upon the organism, but if the duplicate gene is passed along and undergoes change itself, it may induce a feature or ability that was previously not present.

That is to say; there are two potential mutations, Mutation A and Mutation B. Individually, neither of these mutations change the organism's life habits, but if the organism has undergone both A and B, it becomes markedly more successful, and evolution happens.

An example of a potentiating mutation occurred when Richard Lenski's famous bacteria developed a mutation which, while being initially irrelevant to the organism, allowed them to metabolise citrate following a subsequent mutation. As evidence of a potentiating mutation, citrate-metabolising bacteria would re-evolve only in samples taken from after the original experiment's 20,000th generation. Based on the speed of the mutation, Lenski hypothesized that two potentiating mutations may have been required before the final beneficial mutation can achieve its benefit. [1]

Another is when apples had their genes duplicated during about the same period the dinosaurs were dying off.[2] Approximately fifty million years ago, the predecessor plant of modern apples doubled from nine to eighteen chromosomes and lost one to result in a seventeen chromosomes species. While not strictly a mutation, the duplication allowed for much more space, nearly twice as much, for mutations to form and take hold.

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