Reply to: Re-evaluating evidence for adaptive mutation rate variation
J. Grey Monroe, Kevin Murray, Wenfei Xian, Thanvi Srikant, Pablo Carbonell‐Bejerano, Claude Becker, Mariele Lensink, Moisés Expósito‐Alonso, Marie Klein, Julia Hildebrandt, Manuela Neumann, Daniel J. Kliebenstein, Mao‐Lun Weng, Éric Imbert, Jon Ågren, Matthew T. Rutter, Charles B. Fenster, Detlef Weigel
Abstract
Wang and colleagues 1 argue that our report 2 of lower mutation rates in gene bodies, essential genes and regions marked by H3K4me1 must result from DNA sequencing errors. We appreciate the issues raised by them and by other colleagues 3 . Although we overlooked some sources of errors, these are insufficient to invalidate our conclusions, which are confirmed by more stringent reanalyses of our original data, new analyses restricted to high-confidence germline mutations 4 , and direct demonstration of plant DNA repair proteins being recruited to gene bodies, essential genes and H3K4me1, where they reduce local mutation rates 5 , 6 .