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Letter

Nature Genetics 33, 514–517 (1 April 2003) | doi:10.1038/ng1103

Transcription-associated mutational asymmetry in mammalian evolution

Phil Green , Brent Ewing , Webb Miller , Pamela J. Thomas & Eric D. Green

Although mutation is commonly thought of as a random process, evolutionary studies show that different types of nucleotide substitution occur with widely varying rates that presumably reflect biases intrinsic to mutation and repair mechanisms. A strand asymmetry, the occurrence of particular substitution types at higher rates than their complementary types, that is associated with DNA replication has been found in bacteria and mitochondria.