Convergent Evolution of Sodium Ion Selectivity in Metazoan Neuronal Signaling

Maya Gur Barzilai, Adam M. Reitzel, Johanna E.M. Kraus, Dalia Gordon, Ulrich Technau, Michael Gurevitz, Yehu Moran*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

60 Scopus citations

Abstract

The consistent observation across all kingdoms of life that highly abundant proteins evolve slowly demonstrates that cellular abundance is a key determinant of protein evolutionary rate. However, other empirical findings, such as the broad distribution of evolutionary rates, suggest that additional variables determine the rate of protein evolution. Here, we report that under the global selection against the cytotoxic effects of misfolded proteins, folding stability (Δ. G), simultaneous with abundance, is a causal variable of evolutionary rate. Using both theoretical analysis and multiscale simulations, we demonstrate that the anticorrelation between the premutation Δ. G and the arising mutational effect (ΔΔ. G), purely biophysical in origin, is a necessary requirement for abundance-evolutionary rate covariation. Additionally, we predict and demonstrate in bacteria that the strength of abundance-evolutionary rate correlation depends on the divergence time separating reference genomes. Altogether, these results highlight the intrinsic role of protein biophysics in the emerging universal patterns of molecular evolution.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)242-248
Number of pages7
JournalCell Reports
Volume2
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - 30 Aug 2012

Funding

FundersFunder number
Austrian National Science Foundation
National Institute of Child Health and Human DevelopmentF32HD062178
European Molecular Biology OrganizationALTF 1096-2009
United States - Israel Binational Agricultural Research and Development FundIS-4313-10
Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development
Austrian Science FundP 21108-B17
Israel Science Foundation107/08

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