title: Correlated rates of synonymous site evolution across plant genomes.
abstract: Synonymous substitution rates have been shown to vary among evolutionary lineages of both nuclear and organellar genes across a broad range of taxonomic groups. In animals, rate heterogeneity does not appear to be correlated across nuclear and mitochondrial genes. In this paper, we contrast substitution rates in two plant groups and show that grasses evolve more rapidly than palms at synonymous sites in a mitochondrial, a nuclear, and a plastid gene. Furthermore, we show that the relative rates of synonymous substitution between grasses and palms are similar at the three loci. The correlation in synonymous substitution rates across genes is particularly striking because the three genes evolve at very different absolute rates. In contrast, relative rates of nonsynonymous substitution are not conserved among the three genes.
authors.affiliation: Center for Theoretical and Applied Genetics, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey 08903, USA.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Eyre-Walker
authors.forename: B S
authors.initials: BS
authors.lastname: Gaut
mesh_terms: D000426:Alcohol Dehydrogenase / Q000235:genetics; D005075:Biological Evolution; D018745:Genome, Plant; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010940:Plant Proteins / Q000235:genetics; D006109:Poaceae / Q000235:genetics; D012273:Ribulose-Bisphosphate Carboxylase; D014197:Trees / Q000235:genetics
chemical_list: D010940:Plant Proteins; D000426:Alcohol Dehydrogenase; C101625:RbcL protein, plastid; D012273:Ribulose-Bisphosphate Carboxylase