Adaptive evolution and functional redesign of core metabolic proteins in snakes.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Adaptive evolutionary episodes in core metabolic proteins are uncommon, and are even more rarely linked to major macroevolutionary shifts.

Methodology/principal findings

We conducted extensive molecular evolutionary analyses on snake mitochondrial proteins and discovered multiple lines of evidence suggesting that the proteins at the core of aerobic metabolism in snakes have undergone remarkably large episodic bursts of adaptive change. We show that snake mitochondrial proteins experienced unprecedented levels of positive selection, coevolution, convergence, and reversion at functionally critical residues. We examined Cytochrome C oxidase subunit I (COI) in detail, and show that it experienced extensive modification of normally conserved residues involved in proton

SUBMITTER: Castoe TA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2376058 | biostudies-literature | 2008 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature