Genetic saturation is the result of multiple
substitutions at the same site in a sequence, or
identical substitutions in different sequence, such that the apparent
sequence divergence rate is lower than the actual divergence that has occurred. In phylogenetics, saturation effects result in
long branch attraction, where the most distant lineages have misleadingly short branch lengths. It also decreases phylogenetic information contained in the sequences.
Genetic saturation occurs most rapidly on fast evolving sequences, such as the hypervariable region of
mitochondrial DNA
Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA or mDNA) is the DNA located in mitochondria, cellular organelles within eukaryotic cells that convert chemical energy from food into a form that cells can use, such as adenosine triphosphate (ATP). Mitochondrial D ...
, or in
Short tandem repeat such as on the Y-chromosome.
See also
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Long branch attraction
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Molecular clock
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Human mitochondrial molecular clock The human mitochondrial molecular clock is the rate at which mutations have been accumulating in the mitochondrial genome of hominids during the course of human evolution. The archeological record of human activity from early periods in human prehis ...
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Convergent evolution
References
Phylogenetics
Mitochondrial genetics
Genetic genealogy
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