Vawter L, Brown W M
Science. 1986 Oct 10;234(4773):194-6. doi: 10.1126/science.3018931.
The discovery that the rate of evolution of vertebrate mitochondrial DNA is rapid, compared to the rate for vertebrate nuclear DNA, has resulted in its widespread use in evolutionary studies. Comparison of mitochondrial and nuclear DNA divergences among echinoid and vertebrate taxa of similar ages indicates that the rapid rate of vertebrate mitochondrial DNA evolution is, in part, an artifact of a widely divergent rate of nuclear DNA evolution. This disparity in relative rates of mitochondrial and nuclear DNA divergence suggests that the controls and constraints under which the mitochondrial and nuclear genomes operate are evolving independently, and provides evidence that is independent of fossil dating for a robust rejection of a generalized molecular clock hypothesis of DNA evolution.
与脊椎动物核DNA的进化速率相比，脊椎动物线粒体DNA的进化速率很快，这一发现使其在进化研究中得到广泛应用。对相似年龄的海胆类和脊椎动物类群的线粒体DNA和核DNA差异进行比较表明，脊椎动物线粒体DNA进化的快速速率部分是核DNA进化速率差异巨大的一种假象。线粒体DNA和核DNA差异的相对速率上的这种差异表明，线粒体和核基因组运作所依据的控制和限制是独立进化的，并提供了独立于化石年代测定的证据，有力地否定了DNA进化的广义分子钟假说。
