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Neutral evolution has helped shape our genome

07-09-2007 · EurekAlert!

Johns Hopkins researchers have demonstrated that one of the major architectural markers of the human genome, DNA repeat elements that make up over 40 percent of our genome, rose to prominence without offering any benefits to the organism it inhabits.

Keywords: neutral, evolution, helped, shape, genome

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UF researchers devise way to calculate rates of evolution
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Writing online this week in the Royal Society journal Biology Letters, Florida and California scientists link the evolution of proteins -- the organic compounds that determine the structure and function of living things -- to a species' metabolic rate. The findings suggest neutral processes independent of natural selection are also important in governing evolution.
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