Published March 21, 1986
| public
Journal Article
Rates of DNA sequence evolution differ between taxonomic groups
- Creators
- Britten, Roy J.
Abstract
The mutation rates of DNA sequences during evolution can be estimated from interspecies DNA sequence differences by assaying changes that have little or no effect on the phenotype (neutral mutations). Examination of available measurements shows that rates of DNA change of different phylogenetic groups differ by a factor of 5. The slowest rates are observed for higher primates and some bird lineages, while faster rates are seen in rodents, sea urchins, and drosophila. The rate of DNA sequence change has decreased markedly during primate evolution. The contrast in rates of DNA sequence change is probably due to evolutionary variation and selection of biochemical mechanisms such as DNA replication or repair.
Additional Information
© 1986 American Association for the Advancement of Science. I thank Eric Davidson for advice and useful criticism of this manuscript; John Roberts for discussion and assistance in the sequence comparisons; all those who made the measurements and dating observations; M. Goodman and W.-H. Li for sending manuscripts before publication (15, 16); and B. Barth for manuscript assistance. Supported by National Institutes of Health grant GM34031.Additional details
- Eprint ID
- 66168
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20160414-120131159
- GM34031
- NIH
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2016-04-15Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
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2021-11-10Created from EPrint's last_modified field