Abstract
Under the hypothesis of no-strand-bias conditions, the Watson and Crick base-pairing rule decreases the complexity of models of DNA evolution by reducing to six the maximum number of substitution rates. It was shown that intrastrand equimolarity between A and T (A * T *) and between G and C (G * C *) is a general asymptotic property of this class of models. This statistical prediction was observed on 60 long genomic fragments (>50 kbp) from various kingdoms, even when the effect of the two opposite orientations for coding sequences is removed. The practical consequence of the model for estimating the expected number of substitutions per site between two homologous DNA sequences is discussed.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.
Abbreviations
- BPR:
-
Watson and Crick base pairing rule (A:T, G:C)
- PRI:
-
Intrastrand type-1 parity rule (i ≠ j, m(i,j)m(\(\bar i,\bar j\)))
- PRII:
-
Intra strand type-2 parity rule (A * T *, G * C *)
References
Chargaff E (1979) How genetics got a chemical education. Ann NY Acad Sci 325:345–360
Elson D, Chargaff E (1955) Evidence of common regularities in the composition of pentose nucleic acids. Biochim Biophys Acta 17: 367–376
Foster DM, Jacquez JA (1975) Multiple zeros for eigenvalues and the multiplicity of traps of a linear compartmental system. Math Biosci 26:89–97
Jacquez JA, Simon CP (1993) Qualitative theory of compartmental systems. SIAM Rev 35:43–79
Li WH, Wu CI, Luo CC (1984) Nonrandomness of point mutation as reflected in nucleotide substitutions in pseudogenes and its evolutionary implications. J Mol Evol 21:58–71
Prabhu VV (1993) Symmetry observation in long nucleotide sequences. Nucleic Acids Res 21:2797–2800
Rudner R, Karkas JD, Chargaff E (1968) Separation of B. subtilis DNA into complementary strands: III. Direct analysis (1968) Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 60:921–922
Sueoka N (1993) Directional mutation pressure, mutator mutations, and dynamics of molecular evolution. J Mol Evol 37:137–153
Sueoka N (1995) Intrastrand parity rules of DNA base composition and usage biases of synonymous codons. J Mol Evol 40:318–325
Watson JD, Crick FHC (1953) A structure for deoxyribose nucleic acid. Nature 171:737–738
Wu CI, Maeda N (1987) Inequality in mutation rates of the two strands of DNA. Nature 327:169–170
Yang Z (1994) Estimating the pattern of nucleotide substitution. J Mol Evol 39:105–111
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Lobry, J.R. Properties of a general model of DNA evolution under no-strand-bias conditions. J Mol Evol 40, 326–330 (1995). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00163237
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00163237