Microsatellite frequencies vary with body mass and body temperature in mammals, suggesting correlated variation in mutation rate.

ABSTRACT: Substitution rate is often found to correlate with life history traits such as body mass, a predictor of population size and longevity, and body temperature. The underlying mechanism is unclear but most models invoke either natural selection or factors such as generation length that change the number of mutation opportunities per unit time. Here we use published genome sequences from 69 mammals to ask whether life history traits impact another form of genetic mutation, the high rates of predominantly neutral slippage in microsatellites. We find that the length-frequency distributions of three common dinucleotide motifs differ greatly between even closely related species. These frequency differences correlate with body mass and body temperature and can be used to predict the phenotype of an

SUBMITTER: Amos W 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4226647 | biostudies-literature | 2014

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature