RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Human germline mutation and the erratic evolutionary clock
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 058024
DO 10.1101/058024
A1 Priya Moorjani
A1 Ziyue Gao
A1 Molly Przeworski
YR 2016
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2016/08/05/058024.abstract
AB Our understanding of the chronology of human evolution relies on the “molecular clock” provided by the steady accumulation of substitutions on an evolutionary lineage. Recent analyses of human pedigrees have called this understanding into question, by revealing unexpectedly low germline mutation rates, which imply that substitutions accrue more slowly than previously believed. Translating mutation rates estimated from pedigrees into substitution rates is not as straightforward as it may seem, however. We dissect the steps involved, emphasizing that dating evolutionary events requires not “a mutation rate,” but a precise characterization of how mutations accumulate in development, in males and females—knowledge that remains elusive.