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Viral evolution

Not such a variable clock?

Nature Reviews Genetics volume 1, page 86 (2000)Cite this article

Dating where branches split on an evolutionary tree of viral sequences (or any sequence, for that matter) relies upon a constant rate of molecular evolution, known as the `molecular clock'. The intrinsic rate of the molecular clock, and the degree to which two sequences differ, allows one to infer the time at which the sequences diverged in the past. For viruses, this can help to pinpoint the origins of a particular epidemic.

However, statistical analyses of virus sequence evolution are inconsistent with the molecular clock model, and this has often been cited as evidence that the viral mutation rate changes in response to selection pressures. An alternative explanation — one that is tested by Schierup and Hein — is that the apparent variation in mutation rate is just an artefact caused by ignoring viral recombination.

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References

ORIGINAL RESEARCH PAPER

  1. Schierup, M. H. & Hein, J. Recombination and the molecular clock. Mol. Biol. Evol. 17, 1578–1579 (2000) [Contents page]

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FURTHER READING

  1. Huelsenbeck, J. P. & Rannala, B. Phylogenetic methods come of age: Testing hypotheses in a phylogenetic context. Science 276, 227 –232 (1997)

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  2. Schierup, M. H. & Hein, J. Consequences of recombination on traditional phylogenetic analysis. Genetics 156, 879–891 (2000) [ Abstract]

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Authors
  1. Tanita Casci
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Casci, T. Not such a variable clock?. Nat Rev Genet 1, 86 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1038/35038516

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