DNA mutations are the basis of all heritable biological variation. Some variation gives rise to beneficial traits, many are neutral or nearly neutral, and some result in deleterious phenotypes. While it is commonly believed that DNA mutations affect evolutionary phenotypic trajectories over millions of years, scientific advances have shown that this...

Mutation accumulation (MA) experiments are widely used in evolutionary biology for studying the effects, rates and properties of new spontaneous mutations. Despite this, they are laborious to execute, typically taking months to years to a acquire sufficient mutations to measure mutation rates and spectra. Further, typical tools such as agar plates and...