Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 29, 2026

Measuring Microbial Mutation Rates with the Fluctuation Assay
Published on: November 28, 2019
The effective mutation rate at Y chromosome short tandem repeats, with application to human population-divergence
Lev A Zhivotovsky1, Peter A Underhill, Cengiz Cinnioğlu
1N. I. Vavilov Institute of General Genetics, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia. lev@zhivotovsky.net
Abstract:
We estimate an effective mutation rate at an average Y chromosome short-tandem repeat locus as 6.9x10-4 per 25 years, with a standard deviation across loci of 5.7x10-4, using data on microsatellite variation within Y chromosome haplogroups defined by unique-event polymorphisms in populations with documented short-term histories, as well as comparative data on worldwide populations at both the Y chromosome and various autosomal loci. This value is used to estimate the times of the African Bantu expansion, the divergence of Polynesian populations (the Maoris, Cook Islanders, and Samoans), and the origin of Gypsy populations from Bulgaria.
More Related Videos
09:04Studying Ribonucleotide Incorporation: Strand-specific Detection of Ribonucleotides in the Yeast Genome and Measuring Ribonucleotide-induced Mutagenesis
Published on: July 26, 2018
04:52Following the Dynamics of Structural Variants in Experimentally Evolved Populations
Published on: February 3, 2023
Related Concept Videos
The Y Chromosome Determines Maleness
Evolution
Around 300 million years ago, the two sex chromosomes diverged from two identical autosomal chromosomes. Over time, the Y chromosome has lost most of its genes, shrinking in size. Today,...
Mismatch Repair
The Mutator Protein Family Plays a Key Role in DNA Mismatch Repair
The human genome has more than 3 billion base pairs of DNA per cell. Prior to cell division, that vast amount of genetic...
Mismatch Repair
Gene Evolution - Fast or Slow?
In contrast, regions which code...
X and Y Chromosomes
The germline cells such as egg and sperm cells carry only half the number of chromosomes, i.e., 22 autosomes and one sex chromosome. All eggs have an X chromosome, while sperm cells can carry an X or...
Mutation, Gene Flow, and Genetic Drift