Assessing substitution patterns, rates and homoplasy at HVRI of Steller sea lions, Eumetopias jubatus
| Authors: | C.D. Phillips, R.G. Trujillo, T.S. Gelatt, M.J. Smolen, C.W. Matson, R.L. Honeycutt, J.C. Patton, J.W. Bickham |
| Year: | 2009 |
| Type: | Scientific Journal |
| Station: | Northern Research Station |
| DOI: | https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-294x.2009.04283.x |
| Source: | Molecular Biology. 18: 3379-3393. |
Abstract
Despite the widely recognized incidence of homoplasy characterizing this region, the hypervariable region I (HVRI) of the mitochondrial control region is one of the most frequently used genetic markers for population genetic and phylogeographic studies. We present an evolutionary analysis of HVRI and cytochrome b sequences from a range-wide survey of 1031 Steller sea lions, Eumetopias jubatus, to quantify homoplasy and substitution rate at HVRI. Variation in HVRI was distributed across 41 variable sites in the 238-bp segment examined. All variants at HVR1 were found to be transitions. However, our analyses suggest that a minimum of 101 changes have actually occurred within HVRI with as many as 18 substitutions occurring at a single site.