Does Sequence Conservation Provide Evidence for Biological Function?

• Autores: Seila Omer, Timothy J. Harlow , Johann Peter Gogarten
• Localización: Trends in microbiology, ISSN 0966-842X, Vol. 25, Nº. 1, 2017, págs. 11-18
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • Finding a signature of purifying selection in a gene is usually interpreted as evidence for the gene providing a function that is targeted by natural selection. This opinion offers a very different hypothesis: purifying selection may be due to removing harmful mutations from the population, that is, the gene and its encoded protein become harmful after a mutation occurred, possibly because the mutated protein interferes with the translation machinery, or because of toxicity of the misfolded protein. Finding a signature of purifying selection should not automatically be considered proof of the gene's selectable function.