Episodic adaptive evolution of primate lysozymes

Walter Messier and Caro-Beth Stewart
Additional contact information
Walter Messier: University at Albany, State University of New York
Caro-Beth Stewart: University at Albany, State University of New York

Nature, 1997, vol. 385, issue 6612, 151-154

Abstract: Abstract ALTHOUGH the darwinian concept of adaptation was established nearly a century ago, it has been difficult to demonstrate rigorously that the amino-acid differences between homologous proteins from different species have adaptive significance. There are currently two major types of sequence tests for positive darwinian selection on proteins from different species: sequence convergence, and neutral rate violation (reviewed in ref. 1). Lysozymes from the stomachs of cows and langur monkeys, two mammalian species displaying fermentation in the foregut, are an example2,3 of amino-acid sequence convergence among homologous proteins4–6. Here we combine tests of neutral rate violation with reconstruction of ancestral sequences to document an episode of positive selection on the lineage leading to the common ancestor of the foregut-fermenting colobine monkeys. This analysis also detected a previously unsuspected adaptive episode on the lineage leading to the common ancestor of the modern hominoid lysozymes. Both adaptive episodes were followed by episodes of negative selection. Thus this approach can detect adaptive and purifying episodes, and localize them to specific lineages during protein evolution.

Date: 1997
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/385151a0 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:nature:v:385:y:1997:i:6612:d:10.1038_385151a0

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/

DOI: 10.1038/385151a0

Access Statistics for this article

Nature is currently edited by Magdalena Skipper

More articles in Nature from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().