ArticleMolecular biology and evolution2025
Estimates of the Mutation Rate per Year Can Explain Why the Molecular Clock Depends on Generation Time.
Article in Molecular biology and evolution, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 7 papers.
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Who cites it
7 citing papers in PubMed.
- Review
- CellBouncer, a unified toolkit for single-cell demultiplexing and ambient RNA analysis, reveals hominid mitochondrial incompatibilities.Cell genomics · 2026Article
- Mutation rate estimate and population genomic analysis reveals decline of koalas prior to human arrival.Molecular biology and evolution · 2026Article
- Evolution of the highest fidelity DNA replication systems.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- What sets the mutation rate of a cell type in an animal species?PLoS biology · 2026Article
- Trio-sequencing Reveals High Germline Mutation Rates in the Colorado Potato Beetle (Leptinotarsa decemlineata).Genome biology and evolution · 2026Article
- What sets the mutation rate of a cell type in an animal species?bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
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Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
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Abstract
Rates of molecular evolution are known to vary across species, often deviating from the classical expectation of a strict molecular clock. In many cases, the rate of molecular evolution has been found to correlate to generation time, an effect that could be explained if species with shorter generation times have higher mutation rates per year. We investigate this hypothesis using direct estimates of the mutation rate for 133 eukaryotic species from diverse taxonomic groups. Using a phylogenetic comparative approach, we find a strong negative correlation between mutation rate per year and generation time, consistent across all phylogenetic groups. Our results provide a simple explanation for why generation time plays a pivotal role in driving rates of molecular evolution across eukaryotes.
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