From complete genomes to measures of substitution rate variability within and between proteins.

ABSTRACT: Accumulation of complete genome sequences of diverse organisms creates new possibilities for evolutionary inferences from whole-genome comparisons. In the present study, we analyze the distributions of substitution rates among proteins encoded in 19 complete genomes (the interprotein rate distribution). To estimate these rates, it is necessary to employ another fundamental distribution, that of the substitution rates among sites in proteins (the intraprotein distribution). Using two independent approaches, we show that intraprotein substitution rate variability appears to be significantly greater than generally accepted. This yields more realistic estimates of evolutionary distances from amino-acid sequences, which is critical for evolutionary-tree construction. We demonstrate that the int

SUBMITTER: Grishin NV 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC310923 | biostudies-literature | 2000 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature