Table 1.

Direct sequencing estimates of mutation rates. Two probably accurate but indirect estimates (Nachman & Crowell 2000; Kondrashov 2003) are included for Homo sapiens.

species	rate of mutation per site per generation	comments	references
Homo sapiens	2.5 × 10−8 total (from species divergence)	indels are rare	Nachman & Crowell (2000), Kondrashov (2003), Xue et al. (2009)
	1.8 × 10−8 total (phenotypic mutations analysis)
	3.0 × 10−8 total (direct sequencing of Y chromosome)
Drosophila melanogaster	8.4 × 10−9 total	some variation of rates between different lines; supports higher rate estimates	Haag-Liautard et al. (2007), Keightley et al. (2009)
	3.5 × 10−9 to 5.8 × 10−9 point mutations
Drosophila melanogaster mitochondrion	7.2 × 10−8 total	high rate of G→A mutations on the major strand; higher than estimates from species divergence	Haag-Liautard et al. (2008)
	6.2 × 10−8 point mutations
Caenorhabditis elegans	2.1 × 10−8 total	insertions very common; higher than previous estimates	Denver et al. (2004)
	9.1 × 10−9 point mutations
Caenorhabditis elegans mitochondrion	1.6 × 10−7 total	higher than previous estimates	Denver et al. (2000)
	9.7 × 10−8 point mutations
Saccharomyces cerevisiae	0.33 × 10−9	similar to previous estimates	Lynch et al. (2008)
S. cerevisiae mitochondrion	1.2 × 10−8 point mutations (average of two methods)		Lynch et al. (2008)
	7.5 × 10−9 indels (average of two methods)