Nuclear and Mitochondrial DNA Comparisons Reveal Extreme Rate Variation in the Molecular Clock

• Published in: Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science) Vol. 234; no. 4773; pp. 194 - 196
• Main Authors: Vawter, Lisa, Brown, Wesley M.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Washington, DC The American Association for the Advancement of Science 10.10.1986; American Association for the Advancement of Science
• Subjects: Agonists; Animals; Arteries; Base Sequence; Biochemistry; Biological and medical sciences; Biological Evolution; Divergent evolution; DNA; DNA Restriction Enzymes; DNA, Mitochondrial; Evolution; Evolution (Biology); Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Genetic aspects; Genetic variation; Genetics; Genetics of eukaryotes. Biological and molecular evolution; Humans; Mitochondrial DNA; Norepinephrine; Primates; Primates - genetics; Proteins; Sea urchins; Sea Urchins - genetics; Species Specificity; Strongylocentrotus; Taxa; Vertebrates; Chromosome DNA; Mitochondrial DNA; Velocity; Biological evolution; Comparative study; Molecular clock
• ISSN: 0036-8075; 1095-9203
• DOI: 10.1126/science.3018931

The discovery that the rate of evolution of vertebrate mitochondrial DNA is rapid, compared to the rate for vertebrate nuclear DNA, has resulted in its widespread use in evolutionary studies. Comparison of mitochondrial and nuclear DNA divergences among echinoid and vertebrate taxa of similar ages indicates that the rapid rate of vertebrate mitochondrial DNA evolution is, in part, an artifact of a widely divergent rate of nuclear DNA evolution. This disparity in relative rates of mitochondrial and nuclear DNA divergence suggests that the controls and constraints under which the mitochondrial and nuclear genomes operate are evolving independently, and provides evidence that is independent of fossil dating for a robust rejection of a generalized molecular clock hypothesis of DNA evolution.