Mitochondrial substitution rates are extraordinarily elevated and variable in a genus of flowering plants.

ABSTRACT: Plant mitochondrial (mt) genomes have long been known to evolve slowly in sequence. Here we show remarkable departure from this pattern of conservative evolution in a genus of flowering plants. Substitution rates at synonymous sites vary substantially among lineages within Plantago. At the extreme, rates in Plantago exceed those in exceptionally slow plant lineages by approximately 4,000-fold. The fastest Plantago lineages set a new benchmark for rapid evolution in a DNA genome, exceeding even the fastest animal mt genome by an order of magnitude. All six mt genes examined show similarly elevated divergence in Plantago, implying that substitution rates are highly accelerated throughout the genome. In contrast, substitution rates show little or no elevation in Plantago for each of four chlo

SUBMITTER: Cho Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC539783 | biostudies-literature | 2004 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature