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Science 29 September 2000:
Vol. 289. no. 5488, pp. 2342 - 2344
DOI: 10.1126/science.289.5488.2342
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Reports

High Direct Estimate of the Mutation Rate in the Mitochondrial Genome of Caenorhabditis elegans

Dee R. Denver,1 Krystalynne Morris,1 Michael Lynch,2 Larissa L. Vassilieva,2* W. Kelley Thomas1dagger

Mutations in the mitochondrial genome have been implicated in numerous human genetic disorders and offer important data for phylogenetic, forensic, and population genetic studies. Using a long-term series of Caenorhabditis elegans mutation accumulation lines, we performed a wide-scale screen for mutations in the mitochondrial genome that revealed a mutation rate that is two orders of magnitude higher than previous indirect estimates, a highly biased mutational spectrum, multiple mutations affecting coding function, as well as mutational hotspots at homopolymeric nucleotide stretches.

1 Division of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry, School of Biological Sciences, University of Missouri-Kansas City, Kansas City, MO 64110, USA.
2 Department of Biology, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR 97403, USA.
*   Present address: Molecular and Cellular Biology Department, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA.

dagger    To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: thomaske{at}umkc.edu

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