4.4 The choice of mtDNA.
Surprisingly, despite the popularity of mtDNA as a marker in evolutionary studies, this assumption only relies on a handful of comparisons involving mostly vertebrate’s species (Nabholz et al., 2009). Depending on species, mtDNA mutation rate was much higher or lower than nuclear DNA (nuDNA) rate. For example, it is not always clonal, far from neutrally evolving and certainly not clock-like, and the ratio of mitochondrial to nuclear mutation rate varies widely among animals (Allio et al., 2017; Galtier et al., 2009). Despite these long-acknowledged concerns, similar results were obtained in several studies that have employed mtDNA and nuDNA to investigate genetic structuring and demographic history in populations of marine fishes (Machado-Schiaffino et al., 2009; Vinas et al., 2010; Adams et al., 2006; Mccusker & Bentzen, 2010; Yang et al., 2022).