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Mutational pressure as the main cause of molecular evolution and polymorphism

Abstract

The advent of detailed studies on the evolution of individual molecules has cast into doubt some of the neo-Darwinian concepts of what determines evolutionary change. Much more emphasis must now be placed on the constraints imposed by the structural and functional requirements of protein molecules, and on random fixation of very slightly deleterious as well as selectively neutral mutations.

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Ohta, T. Mutational pressure as the main cause of molecular evolution and polymorphism. Nature 252, 351–354 (1974). https://doi.org/10.1038/252351a0

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