The interconnected processes of protein folding, mutations, epistasis, and evolution have all been the subject of extensive analysis throughout the years due to their significance for structural and evolutionary biology. The origin (molecular basis) of epistasis (the non-additive interactions between mutations) is still, nonetheless, unknown. The existence of a new perspective on protein folding (a problem that needs to be conceived as an analytic whole) will enable us to shed light on the origin of mutational epistasis at the simplest level (within proteins) while also uncovering the reasons on why the genetic background in which they occur (a key component of molecular evolution) could foster changes in epistasis effects. Additionally, because mutations are the source of epistasis, more research is needed to determine the impact of posttranslational modifications (which have the potential to increase the diversity of the proteome by several orders of magnitude) on both mutational epistasis and protein evolvability. Finally, a protein evolution thermodynamic-based analysis that does not consider specific mutational steps or epistasis effects will be discussed. Our study explores the complex processes behind the evolution of proteins upon mutations, clearing up some previously unresolved issues and providing direction for further research in this area.
During their evolution, proteins explore sequence space via an interplay between random mutations and phenotypic selection. Here we build upon recent progress in reconstructing data-driven fitness landscapes for families of homologous proteins, to propose stochastic models of experimental protein evolution. These models predict quantitatively important features of experimentally evolved sequence libraries, like fitness distributions and position-specific mutational spectra. They also allow us to efficiently simulate sequence libraries for a vast array of combinations of experimental parameters…
Evolution leads to a diversity of motion-detection neuronal circuits
Department of Computer Science and Engineering(计算机科学与工程系);BEACON Center for the Study of Evolution in Action(进化行为研究灯塔中心);Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics(微生物学与分子遗传学系);Program in Ecology, Evolutionary Biology, and Behavior(生态学、进化生物学与行为项目);Department of Physics and Astronomy, Michigan State University(密歇根州立大学物理与天文学系)
Bacteriophage Q$β$: Six Decades at the Frontier of Molecular and Viral Evolution
Centro de Astrobiología (CAB), CSIC-INTA(天体生物学中心);Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales (CSIC)(国家自然科学博物馆);Grupo Interdisciplinar de Sistemas Complejos (GISC)(复杂系统跨学科小组)