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The molecular clock runs more slowly in man than in apes and monkeys

Nature volume 326, pages 93–96 (1987)Cite this article

Abstract

The molecular clock hypothesis1 postulates that the rate of molecular evolution is approximately constant over time. Although this hypothesis has been highly controversial in the past, it is now widely accepted2–5. The assumption of rate constancy has often been taken as a basis for reconstructing the phylogenetic relationships among organisms or genes and for dating evolutionary events2–5. Further, it has been taken as strong support for the neutral mutation hypothesis5, which postulates that the majority of molecular changes in evolution are due to neutral or nearly neutral mutations6. For these reasons, the validity of the rate constancy assumption is a vital issue in molecular evolution. Recent studies7–12 using DNA sequence data have raised serious doubts about the hypothesis. These studies provided support for the suggestion made from immunological distance and protein sequence data13,14 that a rate slowdown has occurred in hominoid evolution, and showed, in agreement with DNA hybridization studies15,16, that rates of nucleotide substitution are significantly higher in rodents than in man. Here, rates of nucleotide substitution in rodents are estimated to be 4–10 times higher than those in higher primates and 2–4 times higher than those in artiodactyls. Further, this study provides strong evidence for the hominoid slowdown hypothesis13,14 and suggests a further rate-slowdown in hominoid evolution. Our results suggest that the variation in rate among mammals is primarily due to differences in generation time8,16 rather than changes in DNA repair mechanisms9. We also propose a method for estimating the divergence times between species when the rate constancy assumption is violated.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Demographic and Population Genetics, University of Texas, PO Box 20334, Houston, Texas, 77225, USA

    Wen-Hsiung Li & Masako Tanimura

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  1. Wen-Hsiung Li
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  2. Masako Tanimura
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Li, WH., Tanimura, M. The molecular clock runs more slowly in man than in apes and monkeys. Nature 326, 93–96 (1987). https://doi.org/10.1038/326093a0

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