Calculating the Secrets of Life Contributions of the Mathematical Sciences to Molecular Biology (1995) / Chapter Skim
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Pages 114-116
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From page 114... ...
While DNA sequences are transmitted from parent to child with remarkable fidelity, mutations do occur at a small but nonneglig~ble rate, with the result that an individual's descendants begin to diverge in DNA sequence over time. Some mutations are deleterious and are eliminated by natural selection, but many are thought to be selectively neutral and thus accumulate at a roughly steady rat~providing a molecular clock for measuring the time since two species or two individuals within a species shared a common ancestor.
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From page 115... ...
Accordingly, evolutionary studies of distant species are often earned out by examining amino acid sequences of proteins, while evolutionary comparisons among more closely related species are better done by examining DNA sequences within or between genes. To study evolution within a single species such as the human, it is often usefid to study DNA sequences that change at especially rapid rates.
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From page 116... ...
In this chapter, we describe the underlying stochastic structure of this ancestry and use the results to estimate substitution rates. We have chosen to focus on rate estimation to give the chapter a single theme.
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