Question

Molecular dating using mitochondrial DNA sequence usually results in an older divergence estimate compared with dating using nuclear DNA sequence. What does this tell us about the evolutionary rate of each type of DNA sequence? What does the rate have to do with the age estimate of the clock?

Answer 1

EVOLUTIONARY RATE OF DNA SEQUENCE:

The rate of evolution of DNA sequence depends on the rate of the mutation of the DNA sequences. According to the molecular research the mutation rate of the nuclear DNA sequence is more than the Mt-DNA. Mt-DNA is more conserved. As the mutation occur the sequence changes and may leads to the incorporation of new amino acids compare to the wild type( due to degeneracy of universal codon the point mutaion may not always change the amino acid). So nuclear DNA sequence is similar in species level. While the Mt-DNA sequence is similar in family or order level.