Characterizing selective pressures on the pathway for de novo biosynthesis of pyrimidines in yeast.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Selection on proteins is typically measured with the assumption that each protein acts independently. However, selection more likely acts at higher levels of biological organization, requiring an integrative view of protein function. Here, we built a kinetic model for de novo pyrimidine biosynthesis in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae to relate pathway function to selective pressures on individual protein-encoding genes.

Results

Gene families across yeast were constructed for each member of the pathway and the ratio of nonsynonymous to synonymous nucleotide substitution rates (dN/dS) was estimated for each enzyme from S. cerevisiae and closely related species. We found a positive relationship between the influence that each enzyme has on pathway function and its

SUBMITTER: Hermansen RA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4625875 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature