Generation time and albumin evolution

The albumins of long-generation animals such as man and chimpanzee are shown to be no less evolved immunologically than those of some short generation time rodents such as rat, mouse, and hamster. This finding casts very serious doubt on certain assumptions concerning the times of divergence of these species made by DNA hybridization workers. As these assumptions have led them to conclude that generation time is a key factor controlling the rate of genomic or DNA evolution, this latter conclusion is also made suspect. The molecular clock concept—that it is absolute time which determines the amount of protein and DNA evolution—is, on the other hand, strengthened.This research was supported by NSF grants GB-20750 to the author and GB-13119 to Dr. A. C. Wilson.