Molecular Evolution Activities
 

This is a comprehensive bibliography (under construction) of primary and secondary sources on the neutral theory of molecular evolution. It currently covers the period 1973-2001.

Author :

Stephan, W.;Langley, C. H.

Year :

1992

Title :

Evolutionary consequences of DNA mismatch inhibited repair opportunity

Journal :

Genetics

Volume :

132

Issue :

2

Pages :

567-74

Short Title :

Evolutionary consequences of DNA mismatch inhibited repair opportunity

Custom 3 :

93051292

Abstract :

Double strand breaks (DSBs) are often repaired via homologous recombination. Recombinational repair processes are expected to be influenced by nucleotide heterozygosity through mismatch detection systems. Unrepaired DSBs have severe biological consequences and are often lethal. We show that natural selection due to inhibition of recombinational repair associated with polymorphisms could influence their molecular evolution. The main conclusions from this analysis are that, for increasing population size, mismatch detection leads to a limit on average heterozygosity of otherwise selectively neutral polymorphism, an excess of rare variants, and a slowing down of the rate of neutral molecular evolution. The first two results suggest that mismatch detection may account for the surprisingly narrow range of observed average heterozygosities, given the great variation in population size between species.
 -- contributed by John Beatty, March 29, 2002