Rapid detection of positive selection in genes and genomes through variation clusters.

ABSTRACT: Positive selection in genes and genomes can point to the evolutionary basis for differences among species and among races within a species. The detection of positive selection can also help identify functionally important protein regions and thus guide protein engineering. Many existing tests for positive selection are excessively conservative, vulnerable to artifacts caused by demographic population history, or computationally very intensive. I here propose a simple and rapid test that is complementary to existing tests and that overcomes some of these problems. It relies on the null hypothesis that neutrally evolving DNA regions should show a Poisson distribution of nucleotide substitutions. The test detects significant deviations from this expectation in the form of variation clusters,

SUBMITTER: Wagner A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1950645 | biostudies-literature | 2007 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature