Evidence map›Paper›PMID 23950906›Full record

ArticlePloS one2013

Beyond reasonable doubt: evolution from DNA sequences.

W Timothy J White, Bojian Zhong, David Penny

Open access · goldAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in PloS one, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
2citing papers in PubMed
1.2field-weighted citation impact, top 19% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

2 citing papers in PubMed, 8 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Article
  2. The relative ages of eukaryotes and akaryotes.Journal of molecular evolution · 2014
    Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

3 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.

W Timothy J WhiteInstitute of Fundamental Sciences, Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand.
Bojian Zhong
David Penny
Massey University · NZ

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

We demonstrate quantitatively that, as predicted by evolutionary theory, sequences of homologous proteins from different species converge as we go further and further back in time. The converse, a non-evolutionary model can be expressed as probabilities, and the test works for chloroplast, nuclear and mitochondrial sequences, as well as for sequences that diverged at different time depths. Even on our conservative test, the probability that chance could produce the observed levels of ancestral convergence for just one of the eight datasets of 51 proteins is ≈1×10⁻¹⁹ and combined over 8 datasets is ≈1×10⁻¹³². By comparison, there are about 10⁸⁰ protons in the universe, hence the probability that the sequences could have been produced by a process involving unrelated ancestral sequences is about 10⁵⁰ lower than picking, among all protons, the same proton at random twice in a row. A non-evolutionary control model shows no convergence, and only a small number of parameters are required to account for the observations. It is time that that researchers insisted that doubters put up testable alternatives to evolution.

Indexed as

Evolution, MolecularAmino Acid SequenceAnimalsBase SequenceDNAHumansModels, GeneticMolecular Sequence DataProbabilityProteinsDNAProteins

Identifiers

PMID23950906
PMCPMC3738579
OpenAlexW2035692107

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.