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MBE Advance Access published online on December 1, 2007
Molecular Biology and Evolution, doi:10.1093/molbev/msm266
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© The Author 2007. 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

Letter

Evolutionary Rate Variation at Multiple Levels of Biological Organization in Plant Mitochondrial DNA

Daniel B. Sloan1,*, Camille M. Barr2, Matthew S. Olson3, Stephen R. Keller1 and Douglas R. Taylor1

1 Department of Biology, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, USA
2 Division of Biological Sciences, University of Montana, Missoula, MT, USA
3 Institute of Arctic Biology and Department of Biology and Wildlife, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, AK, USA

* Corresponding Author: Department of Biology, University of Virginia, PO Box 400328, Charlottesville, VA, USA 22904, Phone: 434.982.5218, Fax: 434.982.5626, e-mail: dbs4a{at}virginia.edu

Received for publication November 7, 2007. Accepted for publication November 26, 2007.

We examined patterns of mitochondrial polymorphism and divergence in the angiosperm genus Silene and found substantial variation in evolutionary rates among species and among lineages within species. Moreover, we found corresponding differences in the amount of polymorphism within species. We argue that, along with our earlier findings of rate variation among genes, these patterns of rate heterogeneity at multiple phylogenetic scales are most likely explained by differences in underlying mutation rates. In contrast, no rate variation was detected in nuclear or chloroplast loci. We conclude that mutation rate heterogeneity is a characteristic of plant mitochondrial sequence evolution at multiple biological scales and may be a crucial determinant of how much polymorphism is maintained within species. These dramatic patterns of variation raise intriguing questions about the mechanisms driving and maintaining mutation rate heterogeneity in plant mitochondrial genomes. Additionally, they should alter our interpretation of many common phylogenetic and population genetic analyses.

Key Words: Molecular Clock • mtDNA • Mutators • Silene latifolia • Silene noctiflora • Silene vulgaris


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