Neutral evolution of protein-protein interactions: a computational study using simple models.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Protein-protein interactions are central to cellular organization, and must have appeared at an early stage of evolution. To understand better their role, we consider a simple model of protein evolution and determine the effect of an explicit selection for Protein-protein interactions.

Results

In the model, viable sequences all have the same fitness, following the neutral evolution theory. A very simple, two-dimensional lattice representation of the protein structures is used, and the model only considers two kinds of amino acids: hydrophobic and polar. With these approximations, exact calculations are performed. The results do not depend too strongly on these assumptions, since a model using a 3D, off-lattice representation of the proteins gives results in qualit

SUBMITTER: Noirel J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2248192 | biostudies-literature | 2007 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature