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Determining the Likelihood of Variant Pathogenicity Using Amino Acid-level Signal-to-Noise Analysis of Genetic Variation
Published on: January 16, 2019
Mutations in disordered proteins as early indicators of nucleic acid changes triggering speciation
Sergio Forcelloni1, Andrea Giansanti2,3
1Sapienza University of Rome, Department of Physics, P.le A. Moro 5, 00185, Roma, Italy. sergio.forcelloni@gmail.com.
Intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs) drive early speciation, while ordered proteins (ORDPs) accelerate phenotypic divergence after speciation begins. This study reveals distinct roles for protein structural variants in evolution.
Area of Science:
- Evolutionary biology
- Molecular biology
- Genomics
Background:
- Protein structure variants, including intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs), structured proteins with intrinsically disordered regions (IDPRs), and ordered proteins (ORDPs), play crucial roles in biological processes.
- Understanding the differential contributions of these variants to evolutionary mechanisms like speciation is essential.
Purpose of the Study:
- To analyze the distinct roles of ordered proteins (ORDPs), intrinsically disordered protein regions (IDPRs), and intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs) in speciation.
- To investigate the correlation between DNA divergence and protein (phenotypic) divergence across these protein variants.
Main Methods:
- Human and mouse proteomes were categorized into ORDPs, IDPRs, and IDPs.
- Forsdyke plots were employed to correlate DNA divergence with phenotypic divergence using coding sequences from humans, mice, and 26 other eukaryotes.
- Parameters related to speciation were analyzed for each protein variant.
Main Results:
- Intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs) exhibit earlier phenotypic divergence compared to ORDPs and IDPRs.
- Ordered proteins (ORDPs) show later divergence but greater phenotypic reactivity to nucleotide mutations than IDPRs and IDPs.
- Intrinsically disordered protein regions (IDPRs) diverge later, similar to ORDPs, but accept mutations at rates comparable to IDPs.
Conclusions:
- Intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs) are implicated in the initial stages of speciation.
- Mutations in ordered proteins (ORDPs) contribute to accelerated phenotypic divergence once speciation is underway.
- Protein structural variants exhibit differential involvement in the speciation process.
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