title: Drake's rule as a consequence of approaching channel capacity.
abstract: How mutations accumulate in genomes is the central question of molecular evolution theories. However, our understanding of this process is far from complete. Drake's rule is a notoriously universal property of genomes from microbes to mammals-the number of (functional) mutations per-genome per-generation is approximately constant within a phylum, despite the orders of magnitude differences in genome sizes and diverse populations' properties. So far, there is no concise explanation for this phenomenon. A formal model for the storage of genetic information suggests that a genome of any species operates near its maximum informational storage capacity, and the mutation rate per-genome per-generation is near its upper limit, providing a simple explanation for the rule with minimal assumptions.
authors.affiliation: Fachbereich Mathematik und Informatik, Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany.
authors.forename: Alexey A
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Shadrin
authors.forename: Dmitri V
authors.initials: DV
authors.lastname: Parkhomchuk
mesh_terms: D003198:Computer Simulation; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D008957:Models, Genetic; D009154:Mutation