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Updated: Apr 29, 2026

Following the Dynamics of Structural Variants in Experimentally Evolved Populations
Published on: February 3, 2023
Whole-genome identification of neutrally evolving pseudogenes using the evolutionary measure dN/dS
Lise Olivia Andrieux1, David Torrents Arenales
1Joint IRB-BSC Program on Computational Biology, Barcelona Supercomputing Center, Barcelona, Spain, lisa.andrieux@bsc.es.
Abstract:
Starting with the assumption that they are dead copies of genes lacking functionality, and hence that they are not subjected to selective pressure, pseudogenes can be distinguished from protein-coding genes using neutrality and its measure. Here, we describe the different methods that allow to estimate neutral evolution by calculating the ratio between non-synonymous (i.e., causing an amino-acidic change) and synonymous (silent) substitutions and we discuss their application to the identification of pseudogenes.
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