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Rates of molecular evolution: The hominoid slowdown
Author(s) -
Goodman Morris
Publication year - 1985
Publication title -
bioessays
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.175
H-Index - 184
eISSN - 1521-1878
pISSN - 0265-9247
DOI - 10.1002/bies.950030104
Subject(s) - molecular evolution , slowdown , lineage (genetic) , biology , evolutionary biology , mutation , phylogenetics , genetics , nucleotide , amino acid substitution , evolution of mammals , biological evolution , gene , political science , law
It is proposed that early in phylogeny a large proportion of amino acid substitutions were selectively neutral, but that bursts of adaptive substitutions during major radiations of life so increased selective constraints that most mutations in modern proteins are detrimental. Recent findings on DNA nucleotide sequences indicate that decreasing mutation rates further slowed the rate of molecular evolution in the lineage to humans.