Male-driven evolution |
| |
Authors: | Li Wen Hsiung Yi Soojin Makova Kateryna |
| |
Affiliation: | Department of Ecology and Evolution University of Chicago 1101 East 57th Street, Chicago, Illinois 60637, USA. whli@uchicago.edu |
| |
Abstract: | The strength of male-driven evolution - that is, the magnitude of the sex ratio of mutation rate - has been a controversial issue, particularly in primates. While earlier studies estimated the male-to-female ratio (alpha) of mutation rate to be about 4-6 in higher primates, two recent studies claimed that alpha is only about 2 in humans. However, a more recent comparison of mutation rates between a noncoding fragment on Y and a homologous region on chromosome 3 gave an estimate of alpha = 5.3, reinstating strong male-driven evolution in hominoids. Several studies investigated variation in mutation rates among genomic regions that may not be related to sex differences and found strong evidence for such variation. The causes for regional variation in mutation rate are not clear but GC content and recombination are two possible causes. Thus, while the strong male-driven evolution in higher primates suggests that errors during DNA replication in the germ cells are the major source of mutation, the contribution of some replication-independent factors such as recombination may also be important. |
| |
Keywords: | replication errors sex difference in mutation rate generation-time effect molecular clocks GC content recombination rate methylation regional mutation pressure |
本文献已被 ScienceDirect PubMed 等数据库收录! |
|