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MBE Advance Access originally published online on January 29, 2008
Molecular Biology and Evolution 2008 25(4):617-619; doi:10.1093/molbev/msn020
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© The Author 2008. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Letters

Evidence for Male-Driven Evolution in Drosophila

Doris Bachtrog

Division of Biological Sciences, University of California, San Diego

E-mail: dbachtrog{at}ucsd.edu.

Accepted for publication January 21, 2008.

In several vertebrate taxa studied to date, mutation rates are higher in males than females (male-driven evolution). The male-to-female mutation rate ({alpha}) can be estimated by contrasting DNA divergence data at X-linked, Y-linked, and autosomal loci. Previous studies in Drosophila, comparing X-linked and autosomal divergence, have found no evidence for male-driven evolution in this genus. Here, I compare levels of nucleotide divergence between homologous X- and Y-linked loci in Drosophila miranda. Using divergence at both synonymous sites and at short introns, I estimate {alpha} to be approximately 2. This study thus provides the first evidence for male-biased mutation rates outside vertebrates, supporting the view that DNA sequence evolution is male driven in a wide variety of taxa.

Key Words: molecular evolution • male-driven evolution • Drosophila

Jody Hey, Associate Editor


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