Connectivity of neutral networks and structural conservation in protein evolution

Details Connectivity of neutral networks and structural conservation in protein evolution Connectivity of neutral networks and structural conservation in protein evolution

2001-07-05

arxiv.org/abs/cond-mat/0107112v2

J. Mol. Evol. 56: 243-254 (2003)

Physics

Condensed Matter

Soft Condensed Matter

15 pages, 8 figures, revised

Scientific paper

Protein structures are much more conserved than sequences during evolution. Based on this observation, we investigate the consequences of structural conservation on protein evolution. We study seven of the most studied protein folds, finding out that an extended neutral network in sequence space is associated to each of them. Within our model, neutral evolution leads to a non-Poissonian substitution process, due to the broad distribution of connectivities in neutral networks. The observation that the substitution process has non-Poissonian statistics has been used against the original Kimura's neutral theory, while our model shows that this is a generic property of neutral evolution with structural conservation. Our model also predicts that the substitution rate can strongly fluctuate from one branch to another of the evolutionary tree. The average sequence similarity within a neutral network is close to the threshold of randomness, as observed for families of sequences sharing the same fold. Nevertheless, some positions are more difficult to mutate than others. We compare such structurally conserved positions to positions conserved in protein evolution, suggesting that our model can be a valuable tool to distinguish structural from functional conservation in databases of protein families. These results indicate that a synergy between database analysis and structurally-based computational studies can increase our understanding of protein evolution.

Affiliated with

Also associated with

No associations

Rating

Connectivity of neutral networks and structural conservation in protein evolution does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.

If you have personal experience with Connectivity of neutral networks and structural conservation in protein evolution, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Connectivity of neutral networks and structural conservation in protein evolution will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

Comments { 0 }

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-652367