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Higher rate of evolution of X chromosome alpha‐repeat DNA in human than in the great apes.
Author(s) -
Laursen H.B.,
Jørgensen A.L.,
Jones C.,
Bak A.L.
Publication year - 1992
Publication title -
the embo journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 7.484
H-Index - 392
eISSN - 1460-2075
pISSN - 0261-4189
DOI - 10.1002/j.1460-2075.1992.tb05300.x
Subject(s) - clinical microbiology , university hospital , library science , biology , microbiology and biotechnology , medicine , family medicine , computer science
The rate of introduction of neutral mutations is lower in man than in other primates, including the chimpanzee. This species is generally regarded as our closest relative among the great apes. We present here an analysis of sequences of X chromosomal alphoid repetitive DNA from man and the great apes, which supports the closer relationship between man and chimpanzee and indicates a considerably increased rate of recombination in the human repeat DNA. These results indicate that the ‘molecular clock’ is running more quickly in man.