Mutation Rates And Life-History Traits
Sunday, June 19, 2011 - 09:40
in Biology & Nature
Recently, research has been conducted to see if certain life-history traits could be correlated with DNA mutation rates. By using whole-genome sequence data for 32 species of mammal, the researchers tested the hypothesis that DNA mutation rates are influenced by species-specific life-history traits. These mutation rates were estimated by looking at the rate of substitutions of neutrally evolving DNA segments. This type of research could make it possible to infer life-history information of extinct species, providing that genomic data is present.The research focused on three life-history traits.1) Generation timeread more