title: Weak male-driven molecular evolution in rodents.
abstract: In humans and rodents the male-to-female ratio of mutation rate (alpha m) has been suggested to be extremely large, so that the process of nucleotide substitution is almost completely male-driven. However, our sequence data from the last intron of the X chromosome-linked (Zfx) and Y chromosome-linked (Zfy) zinc finger protein genes suggest that alpha m is only approximately 2 in rodents with a 95% confidence interval from 1 to 3. Moreover, from published data on oogenesis and spermatogenesis we estimate the male-to-female ratio of the number of germ cell divisions per generation to be approximately 2 in rodents, confirming our estimate of alpha m and suggesting that errors in DNA replication are the primary source of mutation. As the estimated alpha m for rodents is only one-third of our previous estimate of approximately 6 for higher primates, there appear to be generation-time effects--i.e., alpha m decreases with decreasing generation time.
authors.affiliation: Center for Demographic and Population Genetics, University of Texas, Houston 77225.
authors.forename: B H
authors.initials: BH
authors.lastname: Chang
authors.forename: L C
authors.initials: LC
authors.lastname: Shimmin
authors.forename: S K
authors.initials: SK
authors.lastname: Shyue
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Hewett-Emmett
authors.forename: W H
authors.initials: WH
authors.lastname: Li
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D005075:Biological Evolution; D004247:DNA / Q000235:genetics; D004261:DNA Replication / Q000235:genetics; D005260:Female; D008040:Genetic Linkage; D006801:Humans; D007438:Introns; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice / Q000235:genetics*; D008807:Mice, Inbred BALB C; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D051381:Rats / Q000235:genetics*; D011916:Rats, Inbred F344; D012689:Sequence Homology, Nucleic Acid; D012727:Sex Characteristics; D014960:X Chromosome; D014998:Y Chromosome; D016335:Zinc Fingers / Q000235:genetics
chemical_list: D004247:DNA