Epistasis Creates Invariant Sites and Modulates the Rate of Molecular Evolution.

ABSTRACT: Invariant sites are a common feature of amino acid sequence evolution. The presence of invariant sites is frequently attributed to the need to preserve function through site-specific conservation of amino acid residues. Amino acid substitution models without a provision for invariant sites often fit the data significantly worse than those that allow for an excess of invariant sites beyond those predicted by models that only incorporate rate variation among sites (e.g., a Gamma distribution). An alternative is epistasis between sites to preserve residue interactions that can create invariant sites. Through computer-simulated sequence evolution, we evaluated the relative effects of site-specific preferences and site-site couplings in the generation of invariant sites and the modulation of th

SUBMITTER: Patel R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9156017 | biostudies-literature | 2022 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature