Journal
MOLECULAR BIOLOGY AND EVOLUTION
Volume 38, Issue 9, Pages 3737-3741Publisher
OXFORD UNIV PRESS
DOI: 10.1093/molbev/msab142
Keywords
evolution of complexity; C-value paradox; population genomics; drift barrier hypothesis; genome complexity
Funding
- National Science Foundation [DEB 1838327, MCB 1818288]
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Genome size in mammals is not significantly correlated with population size, suggesting that the Drift-Barrier Hypothesis may be considered provisional.
Genome size in cellular organisms varies by six orders of magnitude, yet the cause of this large variation remains unexplained. The influential Drift-Barrier Hypothesis proposes that large genomes tend to evolve in small populations due to inefficient selection. However, to our knowledge no explicit tests of the Drift-Barrier Hypothesis have been reported. We performed the first explicit test, by comparing estimated census population size and genome size in mammals while incorporating potential covariates and the effect of shared evolutionary history. We found a lack of correlation between census population size and genome size among 199 species of mammals. These results suggest that population size is not the predominant factor influencing genome size and that the Drift-Barrier Hypothesis should be considered provisional.
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