Mutation rate inferred from synonymous substitutions in a long-term evolution experiment with Escherichia coli. Escherichia coli REL606

We sequenced 19 Escherichia coli genomes from a 40,000-generation evolution experiment and directly inferred the point-mutation rate based on the accumulation of synonymous substitutions. The resulting estimate was 8.9E-11 per base-pair per generation, and there was a significant bias toward increased AT-content.