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MBE Advance Access published online on July 28, 2006
Molecular Biology and Evolution, doi:10.1093/molbev/msl073
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© The Author 2006. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org
Accepted July 24, 2006

Research Article

Selection and Slippage Creating Serine Homopolymers

Melanie A. Huntley 1 and G. Brian Golding 1 *

1 McMaster University, Department of Biology, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada

* To whom correspondence should be addressed.
G. Brian Golding, E-mail: Golding{at}McMaster.CA


  Abstract

Highly repetitive sequence within proteins is an abundant feature, yet is considered by some to be the protein equivalent of ‘junk-DNA.’ Homo-polymer sequences, the most highly repetitive of this group, are typically encoded by tri-nucleotide repeats at the DNA level. It is thought that many of these sequences are produced by a replicative slippage mechanism. Recent studies suggest that these highly mutable regions within proteins may allow for rapid morphological evolution emerging from the increased variability afforded by such coding structures. However, in a homopolymer it is difficult to determine if the repeated amino acid is due to slippage at the DNA level or due to selection at the protein level. Here we develop and test a model to detect cases for which the homopolymer tract has clearly been selected for, with no evidence of slippage at the DNA level. The poly-serine tract within the phosphatidylserine receptor protein is used as an excellent example of one such case.

Keywords: protein repeats; simple sequence; amino acids.
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Home page
 Mol Biol EvolHome page
M. A. Huntley and A. G. Clark
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[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


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