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Updated: Sep 26, 2025

Following the Dynamics of Structural Variants in Experimentally Evolved Populations
Published on: February 3, 2023
Molecular Evolutionary Rate Predicts Intraspecific Genetic Polymorphism and Species-Specific Selection
Jiaqi Wu1, Takahiro Yonezawa2, Hirohisa Kishino3,4,5
1Department of Molecular Life Science, Tokai University School of Medicine, Isehara 259-1193, Japan.
Abstract:
It is unknown what determines genetic diversity and how genetic diversity is associated with various biological traits. In this work, we provide insight into these issues. By comparing genetic variation of 14,671 mammalian gene trees with thousands of individual human, chimpanzee, gorilla, mouse, and dog/wolf genomes, we found that intraspecific genetic diversity can be predicted by long-term molecular evolutionary rates rather than de novo mutation rates. This relationship was established during the early stage of mammalian evolution. Moreover, we developed a method to detect fluctuations of species-specific selection on genes based on the deviations of intraspecific genetic diversity predicted from long-term rates. We showed that the evolution of epithelial cells, rather than connective tissue, mainly contributed to morphological evolution of different species. For humans, evolution of the immune system and selective sweeps caused by infectious diseases are the most representative examples of adaptive evolution.
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