Neutral substitutions accumulate between lineages primarily via

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Neutral substitutions are those that do not affect the fitness of an organism. They can accumulate over time due to genetic drift, which is random fluctuations in the frequency of alleles in a population. This process is more likely to occur in small populations where chance events can have a greater impact on allele frequencies. Purifying selection and positive selection both act to remove or promote mutations that affect fitness, respectively. Reversions refer to mutations that restore the original sequence and are not substitutions. Transversions are a specific type of substitution where a purine is replaced by a pyrimidine or vice versa, but they do not explain how substitutions accumulate between lineages.

Neutral Substitutions Accumulate Between Lineages Primarily Via