Mutation rate is linked to diversification in birds
Robert Lanfear1, Simon Y. W. Ho, Dominic Love, and Lindell Bromham
+Author Affiliations
Centre for Macroevolution and Macroecology, Ecology Evolution and Genetics, Research School of Biology, Australian National University, Canberra ACT 0200, Australia
Edited by Michael Lynch, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, and approved October 18, 2010 (received for review June 3, 2010)
Abstract
How does genome evolution affect the rate of diversification of biological lineages? Recent studies have suggested that the overall rate of genome evolution is correlated with the rate of diversification. If true, this claim has important consequences for understanding the process of diversification, and implications for the use of DNA sequence data to reconstruct evolutionary history. However, the generality and cause of this relationship have not been established. Here, we test the relationship between the rate of molecular evolution and net diversification with a 19-gene, 17-kb DNA sequence dataset from 64 families of birds. We show that rates of molecular evolution are positively correlated to net diversification in birds. Using a 7.6-kb dataset of protein-coding DNA, we show that the synonymous substitution rate, and therefore the mutation rate, is correlated to net diversification. Further analysis shows that the link between mutation rates and net diversification is unlikely to be the indirect result of correlations with life-history variables that may influence both quantities, suggesting that there might be a causal link between mutation rates and net diversification.
avian, speciation, divergence, reproductive isolation, hybrid incompatibility
Footnotes
1To whom correspondence should be addressed.
E-mail:rob.lanfear@anu.edu.au.
Author contributions: R.L. and L.B. designed research; R.L., S.Y.W.H., D.L., and L.B. performed research; R.L. analyzed data; and R.L., S.Y.W.H., and L.B. wrote the paper.
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
This article is a PNAS Direct Submission.
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