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The rate of adaptive evolution in animal mitochondria

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posted on 2023-06-09, 00:00 authored by Jennifer E James, Gwenael Piganeau, Adam Eyre-WalkerAdam Eyre-Walker
We have investigated whether there is adaptive evolution in mitochondrial DNA, using an extensive data set containing over 500 animal species from a wide range of taxonomic groups. We apply a variety of McDonald–Kreitman style methods to the data. We find that the evolution of mitochondrial DNA is dominated by slightly deleterious mutations, a finding which is supported by a number of previous studies. However, when we control for the presence of deleterious mutations using a new method, we find that mitochondria undergo a significant amount of adaptive evolution, with an estimated 26% (95% confidence intervals: 5.7–45%) of nonsynonymous substitutions fixed by adaptive evolution. We further find some weak evidence that the rate of adaptive evolution is correlated to synonymous diversity. We interpret this as evidence that at least some adaptive evolution is limited by the supply of mutations.

History

Publication status

  • Published

File Version

  • Published version

Journal

Molecular Ecology

ISSN

0962-1083

Publisher

Wiley

Issue

1

Volume

25

Page range

67-78

Department affiliated with

  • Evolution, Behaviour and Environment Publications

Full text available

  • Yes

Peer reviewed?

  • Yes

Legacy Posted Date

2016-01-15

First Open Access (FOA) Date

2016-01-15

First Compliant Deposit (FCD) Date

2016-01-15

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