Integrated structural and evolutionary analysis reveals common mechanisms underlying adaptive evolution in mammals.

ABSTRACT: Understanding the molecular basis of adaptation to the environment is a central question in evolutionary biology, yet linking detected signatures of positive selection to molecular mechanisms remains challenging. Here we demonstrate that combining sequence-based phylogenetic methods with structural information assists in making such mechanistic interpretations on a genomic scale. Our integrative analysis shows that positively selected sites tend to colocalize on protein structures and that positively selected clusters are found in functionally important regions of proteins, indicating that positive selection can contravene the well-known principle of evolutionary conservation of functionally important regions. This unexpected finding, along with our discovery that positive selection acts o

SUBMITTER: Slodkowicz G 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7084095 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature