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Cited by 398

The DOI matches its Crossref record; 29 of the 29 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.

High genomic deleterious mutation rates in hominids

Open access
Eyre-Walker, Adam, Keightley, Peter D.·1999·Nature

Abstract

It has been suggested that humans may suffer a high genomic deleterious mutation rate,. Here we test this hypothesis by applying a variant of a molecular approach to estimate the deleterious mutation rate in hominids from the level of selective constraint in DNA sequences. Under conservative assumptions, we estimate that an average of 4.2 amino-acid-altering mutations per diploid per generation have occurred in the human lineage since humans separated from chimpanzees. Of these mutations, we estimate that at least 38% have been eliminated by natural selection, indicating that there have been more than 1.6 new deleterious mutations per diploid genome per generation. Thus, the deleterious mutation rate specific to protein-coding sequences alone is close to the upper limit tolerable by a species such as humans that has a low reproductive rate, indicating that the effects of deleterious mutations may have combined synergistically. Furthermore, the level of selective constraint in hominid protein-coding sequences is atypically low. A large number of slightly deleterious mutations may therefore have become fixed in hominid lineages.

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Metadata

Authors
Eyre-Walker, A., & Keightley, P. D.
Venue
Nature
Published
1999-01
Volume
397
Issue
6717
Pages
344-347
ISSN
  • 0028-0836 (ISSN-L)
  • 1476-4687
OpenAlex
W1502061430
Cited by
398
References
29
FWCI
17.22
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
green

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CoChat. (2026). Citation check: High genomic deleterious mutation rates in hominids. https://app.cochat.ai/papers/10.1038/16915
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Eyre-Walker, A., & Keightley, P. D. (1999). High genomic deleterious mutation rates in hominids. Nature. https://doi.org/10.1038/16915

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