What Assumptions Are Molecular Clocks Based On? The molecular clock rooting method has one assumption: the rate of evolution is constant for the sequences of interest (Yang and Rannala, 2012). The rate is typically expressed in substitutions per site per year or substitutions per site per million years (Brown and Yang, 2011). What are the
What Are Molecular Clocks Based On? Molecular clocks are based on two key biological processes that are the source of all heritable variation: mutation and recombination. Mutations are changes to the letters of DNA’s genetic code – for instance, a nucleotide Guanine (G) becomes a Thymine (T). What assumptions are molecular clocks based on? The
What Are The Characteristics Of A Good Molecular Clock? An ideal molecular clock has a number of features: rate constancy through time, rate homogeneity across lineages, taxonomic breadth and applicability, and accessibility of the data. Characters that have evolved at a relatively constant rate are the most suitable for molecular clocks. What are molecular clocks