Divergence times

Peterson, K.J., Lyons, J.B., Nowak, K.S., Takacs, C.M., Wargo, M.J. and McPeek, M.A. (2004) Estimating metazoan divergence times with a molecular clock. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 101, 6536-6541. 

Feng D-F, Cho G, Doolittle RF (1997) Determining divergence times with a protein clock update and reevaluation. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 94 13028-13033 Gabaldon T, Huynen MA (2003) Reconstruction of the protomitochondrial metabolism. Science 301 609... 

Genetic Distance and Divergence Times Based on 383 Fibroblast Proteins"... 

Doolittle R. F., Feng D. F., Tsang S., Cho G., and Little E. (1996) Determining divergence times of the major kingdoms of living organisms with a protein clock. Science 271(5248), 470-477. 

Fig. 12. Evolution of insulin chains. Plots of the sequence divergence of replacement (A) and silent (B) substitutions against divergence time, x, A-chains +, B-chains O, signal peptides. Reprinted, with permission, from Hahn et al. (1983).

Such comparisons reveal only the relative divergence times— for example, that myoglobin diverged from hemoglobin twice as long ago as the a chain diverged from the ]8 chain. How can we estimate the approximate dates of gene duplications and other evolutionary events Evolutionary... 

Ho SYW, Phillips MJ, Cooper A, Drummond AJ (2005) Time dependency of molecular rate estimates and systemic overestimation of recent divergence times. Mol Biol Evol 22 1561-1568... 

---