Fractal renewal model of molecular evolution

What is it about?

First, a few definitions. An evolutionary substitution of one nucleotide for another in a coding sequence is called "synonymous" if it does not cause an amino acid substitution according to the genetic code. Otherwise, it is called "nonsynonymous" since it does lead to an amino acid substitution. The "index of dispersion" is a measure of how variable the rate of substitution is. Regardless of whether synonymous or nonsynonymous substitutions are considered, there is a pattern of correlation between the estimated mean rate of nucleotide substitution and the index of dispersion called a geometric correlation. That geometric correlation is predicted by the model proposed in this paper.

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Why is it important?

The proposed fractal renewal model of molecular evolution may be the simplest model of substitution with molecular evolution on all time scales. For it is like the constant-rate Poisson process of the molecular clock hypothesis in all respects except one: the times between events have a power-law distribution instead of an exponential distribution.

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