ArticleBMC evolutionary biology2011
Diversification and the rate of molecular evolution: no evidence of a link in mammals.
Article in BMC evolutionary biology, 2011. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 17 papers.
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Who cites it
17 citing papers in PubMed.
- Evolutionary Tempo, Supertaxa, and Living Fossils.Systematic biology · 2025Article
- Negative global-scale association between genetic diversity and speciation rates in mammals.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Combining Molecular, Macroevolutionary, and Macroecological Perspectives on the Generation of Diversity.Cold Spring Harbor perspectives in biology · 2024Review
- Nucleotide Substitutions during Speciation may Explain Substitution Rate Variation.Systematic biology · 2022Article
- Investigating the reliability of molecular estimates of evolutionary time when substitution rates and speciation rates vary.BMC ecology and evolution · 2022Article
- Deep time diversity and the early radiations of birds.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2021Article
- Evolutionary Rates of Bumblebee Genomes Are Faster at Lower Elevations.Molecular biology and evolution · 2019Article
- History is written by the victors: The effect of the push of the past on the fossil record.Evolution; international journal of organic evolution · 2018Article
- Mammal diversity will take millions of years to recover from the current biodiversity crisis.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2018Article
- Integration of mtDNA pseudogenes into the nuclear genome coincides with speciation of the human genus. A hypothesis.Mitochondrion · 2017Article
- Two new fern chloroplasts and decelerated evolution linked to the long generation time in tree ferns.Genome biology and evolution · 2014Article
- Kr/Kc but not dN/dS correlates positively with body mass in birds, raising implications for inferring lineage-specific selection.Genome biology · 2014Article
- Historical factors that have shaped the evolution of tropical reef fishes: a review of phylogenies, biogeography, and remaining questions.Frontiers in genetics · 2014Review
- Review
- Rates of molecular evolution and diversification in plants: chloroplast substitution rates correlate with species-richness in the Proteaceae.BMC evolutionary biology · 2013Article
- Exploring the correlations between sequence evolution rate and phenotypic divergence across the Mammalian tree provides insights into adaptive evolution.Journal of biosciences · 2012Review
- The genome as a life-history character: why rate of molecular evolution varies between mammal species.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2011Review
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Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundRecent research has indicated a positive association between rates of molecular evolution and diversification in a number of taxa. However debate continues concerning the universality and cause of this relationship. Here, we present the first systematic investigation of this relationship within the mammals. We use phylogenetically independent sister-pair comparisons to test for a relationship between substitution rates and clade size at a number of taxonomic levels. Total, non-synonymous and synonymous substitution rates were estimated from mitochondrial and nuclear DNA sequences.
resultsWe found no evidence for an association between clade size and substitution rates in mammals, for either the nuclear or the mitochondrial sequences. We found significant associations between body size and substitution rates, as previously reported.
conclusionsOur results present a contrast to previous research, which has reported significant positive associations between substitution rates and diversification for birds, angiosperms and reptiles. There are three possible reasons for the differences between the observed results in mammals versus other clades. First, there may be no link between substitution rates and diversification in mammals. Second, this link may exist, but may be much weaker in mammals than in other clades. Third, the link between substitution rates and diversification may exist in mammals, but may be confounded by other variables.
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