ESTIMATING THE AGE OF THE COMMON ANCESTOR OF A SAMPLE OF DNA-SEQUENCES

Authors
FU YX LI WH
Citation
Yx. Fu et Wh. Li, ESTIMATING THE AGE OF THE COMMON ANCESTOR OF A SAMPLE OF DNA-SEQUENCES, Molecular biology and evolution, 14(2), 1997, pp. 195-199
Citations number
13
Categorie Soggetti
Biology
Journal title
Molecular biology and evolution → ACNP
ISSN journal
07374038
Volume
14
Issue
2
Year of publication
1997
Pages
195 - 199
Database
ISI
SICI code
0737-4038(1997)14:2<195:ETAOTC>2.0.ZU;2-D
Abstract
We present a simple Monte Carlo method for estimating the age of the m ost recent common ancestor (MRCA) of a sample of DNA sequences. We sho w that Templeton's (1993) estimator of the age of the MRCA based on th e maximum number of nucleotide differences between two sequences in a sample is inaccurate, and we demonstrate the new method by reanalyzing a sample of DNA sequences from human Y chromosomes and a sample of hu man Alu sequences.