Determining and dating recent rodent speciation events by using L1 (LINE-1) retrotransposons.

ABSTRACT: Phylogenies based on the inheritance of shared derived characters will be ambiguous when the shared characters are not the result of common ancestry. Such characters are called homoplasies. Phylogenetic analysis also can be problematic if the characters have not changed sufficiently, as might be the case for rapid or recent speciations. The latter are of particular interest because evolutionary processes may be more accessible the more recent the speciation. The repeated DNA subfamilies generated by the mammalian L1 (LINE-1) retrotransposon are apparently homoplasy-free phylogenetic characters. L1 retrotransposons are transmitted only by inheritance and rapidly generate novel variants that produce distinct subfamilies of mostly defective copies, which then "age" as they diverge. Here we sh

SUBMITTER: Verneau O 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC21634 | biostudies-literature | 1998 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature