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Why is the correlation between gene importance and gene evolutionary rate so weak?
1Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States of America.
Plos Genetics
|January 10, 2009
Summary
The principle that important genes evolve slowly is weak. Gene importance in lab versus nature doesn't explain this, nor does functional density. The correlation is factually weak but still useful.
Area of Science:
- Molecular Evolution
- Genomics
- Population Genetics
Background:
- A core principle in molecular evolution posits that functionally important genes evolve slower than less important ones.
- Recent genomic studies show weak negative correlations between gene evolutionary rate and functional importance, often measured in lab conditions.
- A potential explanation is the discrepancy between lab-determined and natural environmental gene importance.
Purpose of the Study:
- To test if gene importance in natural conditions strengthens the correlation between functional importance and evolutionary rate.
- To investigate if functional density influences the observed correlation.
- To determine the factual basis of the weak correlation between gene importance and evolutionary rate.
Main Methods:
- Yeast gene importance was assessed across 418 lab conditions and 10,000 predicted nutritional conditions.
- Evolutionary rates were compared between always-essential, sometimes-essential, and always-nonessential genes.
- Functional density was approximated by the fraction of amino acid sites within protein domains.
Main Results:
- No condition or combination of conditions revealed a significantly stronger negative correlation between gene importance and evolutionary rate.
- Always-essential genes did not evolve significantly slower than sometimes-essential or always-nonessential genes.
- Functional density was uncorrelated with gene importance, and this did not explain the weak correlation.
Conclusions:
- The weakness of the correlation between gene importance and evolutionary rate is factual, not an artifact of experimental conditions or functional density.
- Population genetics and multiple independent rate determinants likely weaken this correlation.
- Despite its weakness, the principle retains practical utility when comparing genes with vastly different evolutionary rates.
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