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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik
BP 21: Population Dynamics and Evolution
BP 21.4: Talk
Thursday, February 28, 2008, 13:00–13:15, C 243
Protein Thermodynamics and Population Dynamics — •Miriam Fritsche1, Andreas Buhr1, Ugo Bastolla2, and Markus Porto1 — 1Institut für Festkörperphysik, Technische Universität Darmstadt, Hochschulstr. 8, 64289 Darmstadt, Germany — 2Centro de Biología Molecular ’Severo Ochoa‘, Campus UAM, Cantoblanco, 28049 Madrid, Spain
When investigating proteins one has to take into account both the physical constraints on folding stability and the biological constraints on their evolution, being the driving force of nature [1]. Based on previous work [2] we investigate thermodynamical properties of proteins during evolution applying a model which consists of mutations as well as purifying selection. In addition to the explicit consideration of thermodynamic stability, we account for the effect of mutational and translational load in the evolutionary process, therewith sheding light on the impact the spectrum of mutations has on natural selection. Investigating the interplay between protein thermodynamics, population dynamics as well as genomic features we are able to better understand several properties of proteins as well as their evolution, for instance, the existence of a strong mutation bias in the genome of intracellular bacteria.
[1] Structural Approaches to Sequence Evolution, U. Bastolla, M. Porto, H.E. Roman and M. Vendruscolo, ed., Springer, Berlin, 2007
[2] U. Bastolla, M. Porto, H.E. Roman and M. Vendruscolo, Phys. Rev. Lett. 89, 208101 (2002); J. Mol. Evol. 56, 243 (2003); Proteins 58, 22 (2005); Mol. Biol. Evol. 22, 630 (2005); BMC Evol. Biol. 6, 43 (2006)