The origin of conserved protein domains and amino acid repeats via adaptive competition for control over amino acid residues.

ABSTRACT: Some proteins, such as homeodomain transcription factors, contain highly conserved regions of sequence. It has recently been suggested that multiple functional domains overlap in the homeodomain, together explaining this high conservation. However, the question remains why so many functional domains cluster together in one relatively small and constrained region of the protein. Here we have modeled an evolutionary mechanism that can produce this kind of clustering: conserved functional domains are displaced from the parts of the molecule that are undergoing adaptive evolution because novel functions generally out-compete conserved functions for control over the identity of amino acid residues. We call this model COAA, for Competition Over Amino Acids. We also studied the evolution of amino

SUBMITTER: Rorick MM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3368225 | biostudies-literature | 2010 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature