Quantitative analysis of the selective pressure exerted on homologous proteins

Evolution analysis is used to locate the regions of a protein that are important for its function or structure. The rate of evolution is generally constant for a given family of homologous sequences. From the starting point of this observation, an algorithm is proposed to establish quantitatively the sequence zones where selective pressure is maximal. A program that computes this pressure has been written in PASCAL. Analysis of results on some sequences validate this theoretical approach, and this knowledge can be used as a starting-point for carrying out site-directed mutagenesis.