As. Peek et al., ACCELERATED EVOLUTIONARY RATE IN SULFUR-OXIDIZING ENDOSYMBIOTIC BACTERIA ASSOCIATED WITH THE MODE OF SYMBIONT TRANSMISSION, Molecular biology and evolution, 15(11), 1998, pp. 1514-1523
The nearly neutral theory of molecular evolution predicts that the rat
e of nucleotide substitution should accelerate in small populations at
sites under low selective constraint. We examined these predictions w
ith respect to the relative population sizes for three bacterial life
histories within chemolithoautotrophic sulfur-oxidizing bacteria: (1)
free-living bacteria, (2) environmentally captured symbionts, and (3)
maternally transmitted symbionts. Both relative rates of nucleotide su
bstitution and relative ratios of loop, stem, and domain substitutions
from 1,165 nt of the small-subunit 16S rDNA were consistent with expe
ctations of the nearly neutral theory. Relative to free-living sulfur-
oxidizing autotrophic bacteria, the maternally transmitted symbionts h
ave faster substitution rates overall and also in low-constraint domai
ns of 16S rDNA. Nucleotide substitition rates also differ between loop
and stem positions. All of these findings are consistent with the pre
dictions that these symbionts have relatively small effective populati
on sizes, in contrast, the rates of nucleotide substitution in environ
mentally captured symbionts are slower, particularly in high-constrain
t domains, than in free-living bacteria.