Protein evolution Causes of trends in amino-acid gain and loss (Reply)

Hurst et al. and, earlier, McDonald confirm the pattern of amino-acid gain and loss that we report. However, they attribute this pattern to properties of the mutation-selection equilibrium, arguing that gainer amino acids are more common than losers among weakly deleterious, rare polymorphisms, whic...

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Published inNature (London) Vol. 442; no. 7105; p. E12
Main Authors Jordan, I. K, Koonin, E. V, Sunyaev, S, Kondrashov, A. S, Kondrashov, F. A, Adzhubei, I. A, Wolf, Y. I
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published London Nature Publishing Group 24.08.2006
Subjects
Amino acids
Evolution
Mutation
Polymorphism
Proteins
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Summary:Hurst et al. and, earlier, McDonald confirm the pattern of amino-acid gain and loss that we report. However, they attribute this pattern to properties of the mutation-selection equilibrium, arguing that gainer amino acids are more common than losers among weakly deleterious, rare polymorphisms, which segregate within one or both compared species but never reach fixation. Indeed, we all concur that gainers are, mostly, under-represented, whereas losers are over-represented with respect to mutations (Table 3 of ref. 3). Still, we cannot agree that the effect of weak negative selection is a viable alternative to our original explanation.
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ISSN:0028-0836
1476-4687
DOI:10.1038/nature05138