Skip Navigation



MBE Advance Access published online on November 12, 2007
Molecular Biology and Evolution, doi:10.1093/molbev/msm248
This Article
Right arrow Advance Access manuscript (PDF) Freely available
Right arrow All Versions of this Article:
25/1/120    most recent
msm248v1
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Nabholz, B.
Right arrow Articles by Galtier, N.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Nabholz, B.
Right arrow Articles by Galtier, N.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

© 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

Research Article

Strong Variations of Mitochondrial Mutation Rate across Mammals – the Longevity Hypothesis

Benoit Nabholz*, Sylvain Glémin and Nicolas Galtier

Institut des Sciences de l'Evolution – CC64, CNRS – Université Montpellier 2, 34095 Montpellier Cedex 5, France, phone: (+33) 467 14 48 18, fax: (+33) 467 14 46 10, bnabholz{at}univ-montp2.fr

* corresponding author

Received for publication July 6, 2007. Revision received October 15, 2007. Accepted for publication October 24, 2007.

Mitochondrial DNA is the most popular marker of molecular diversity in animals, primarily because of its elevated mutation rate. After >20 years of intensive usage, the extent of mitochondrial evolutionary rate variations across species, their practical consequences on sequence analysis methods, and the ultimate reasons for mitochondrial DNA hypermutability are still largely unresolved issues. Using an extensive cytochrome b data set, fossil data, and taking advantage of the decoupled dynamics of synonymous and non-synonymous substitutions, we measure the lineage-specific mitochondrial mutation rate across 1696 mammalian species, and compare it to the nuclear rate. We report an unexpected two-orders of magnitude mitochondrial mutation rate variation between lineages: cytochrome b third-codon positions are renewed every 1-2 million year, in average, in the fastest evolving mammals, while it takes >100 million years in slow-evolving lineages. This result has obvious implications in the fields of molecular phylogeny, molecular dating and population genetics. Variations of mitochondrial substitution rate across species are partly explained by body mass, longevity, and age of female sexual maturity. The classical metabolic rate and generation time hypothesis, however, do not fully explain the observed patterns, especially a stronger effect of longevity in long-lived than in short-lived species. We propose that natural selection tends to decrease the mitochondrial mutation rate in long-lived species, in agreement with the mitochondrial theory of ageing.

Key Words: Mutation rate • mitochondrial DNA • theory of ageing • mammals


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?


This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 Mol Biol EvolHome page
J. A. Jackson, C. S. Baker, M. Vant, D. J. Steel, L. Medrano-Gonzalez, and S. R. Palumbi
Big and Slow: Phylogenetic Estimates of Molecular Evolution in Baleen Whales (Suborder Mysticeti)
Mol. Biol. Evol., November 1, 2009; 26(11): 2427 - 2440.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Home page
 Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USAHome page
C. Tsantes and M. E. Steiper
Age at first reproduction explains rate variation in the strepsirrhine molecular clock
PNAS, October 27, 2009; 106(43): 18165 - 18170.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Home page
 Mol Biol EvolHome page
S. Guimaraes, S. Ghirotto, A. Benazzo, L. Milani, M. Lari, E. Pilli, E. Pecchioli, F. Mallegni, B. Lippi, F. Bertoldi, et al.
Genealogical Discontinuities among Etruscan, Medieval, and Contemporary Tuscans
Mol. Biol. Evol., September 1, 2009; 26(9): 2157 - 2166.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Home page
 Biol LettHome page
S. Y.W. Ho
An examination of phylogenetic models of substitution rate variation among lineages
Biol Lett, June 23, 2009; 5(3): 421 - 424.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Home page
 Biol LettHome page
N. Galtier, R. W. Jobson, B. Nabholz, S. Glemin, and P. U. Blier
Mitochondrial whims: metabolic rate, longevity and the rate of molecular evolution
Biol Lett, June 23, 2009; 5(3): 413 - 416.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Home page
 Biol LettHome page
L. Bromham
Why do species vary in their rate of molecular evolution?
Biol Lett, June 23, 2009; 5(3): 401 - 404.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Home page
 BioinformaticsHome page
T. D. O'Connor and N. I. Mundy
Genotype-phenotype associations: substitution models to detect evolutionary associations between phenotypic variables and genotypic evolutionary rate
Bioinformatics, June 15, 2009; 25(12): i94 - i100.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Home page
 GeneticsHome page
C. R. Haag, S. J. McTaggart, A. Didier, T. J. Little, and D. Charlesworth
Nucleotide Polymorphism and Within-Gene Recombination in Daphnia magna and D. pulex, Two Cyclical Parthenogens
Genetics, May 1, 2009; 182(1): 313 - 323.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Home page
 Mol Biol EvolHome page
S. E. Massey
The Proteomic Constraint and Its Role in Molecular Evolution
Mol. Biol. Evol., December 1, 2008; 25(12): 2557 - 2565.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


Disclaimer: Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.