Evidence for a high frequency of simultaneous double-nucleotide substitutions

M Averof*, A Rokas, KH Wolfe, PM Sharp

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Point mutations are generally assumed to involve changes of single nucleotides. Nevertheless, the nature and known mechanisms of mutation do not exclude the possibility that several adjacent nucleotides may change simultaneously in a single mutational event. Two independent approaches are used here to estimate the frequency of simultaneous double-nucleotide substitutions. The first examines switches between TCN and ACY (where N is any nucleotide and Y is a pyrimidine) codons encoding absolutely conserved serine residues in a number of proteins from diverse organisms. The second reveals double-nucleotide substitutions in primate noncoding sequences. These two complementary approaches provide similar high estimates for the rate of doublet substitutions, on the order of 0.1 per site per billion years.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1283-1286
Number of pages4
JournalScience
Volume287
Issue number5456
Publication statusPublished - 18 Feb 2000

Keywords / Materials (for Non-textual outputs)

  • GENOME
  • SEQUENCE
  • MOLECULAR EVOLUTION
  • NONSYNONYMOUS SUBSTITUTIONS
  • ALIGNMENT
  • DNA
  • MUTATION
  • DIVERGENCE
  • 2 SERINES
  • UBIQUITIN GENES

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