Stability along with extreme variability in core genome evolution.

ABSTRACT: The shape of the distribution of evolutionary distances between orthologous genes in pairs of closely related genomes is universal throughout the entire range of cellular life forms. The near invariance of this distribution across billions of years of evolution can be accounted for by the Universal Pace Maker (UPM) model of genome evolution that yields a significantly better fit to the phylogenetic data than the Molecular Clock (MC) model. Unlike the MC, the UPM model does not assume constant gene-specific evolutionary rates but rather postulates that, in each evolving lineage, the evolutionary rates of all genes change (approximately) in unison although the pacemakers of different lineages are not necessarily synchronized. Here, we dissect the nearly constant evolutionary rate distributio

SUBMITTER: Wolf YI 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3730350 | biostudies-literature | 2013

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature