Epistatic interactions modulate the evolution of mammalian mitochondrial respiratory complex components.

ABSTRACT:

Background

The deleterious effect of a mutation can be reverted by a second-site interacting residue. This is an epistatic compensatory process explaining why mutations that are deleterious in some species are tolerated in phylogenetically related lineages, rendering evident that those mutations are, by all means, only deleterious in the species-specific context. Although an extensive and refined theoretical framework on compensatory evolution does exist, the supporting evidence remains limited, especially for protein models. In this current study, we focused on the molecular mechanism underlying the epistatic compensatory process in mammalian mitochondrial OXPHOS proteins using a combination of in-depth structural and sequence analyses.

Results

Modeled human structures were

SUBMITTER: Azevedo L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2711975 | biostudies-literature | 2009 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature