Title |
Synonymous site conservation in the HIV-1 genome
|
---|---|
Published in |
BMC Ecology and Evolution, August 2013
|
DOI | 10.1186/1471-2148-13-164 |
Pubmed ID | |
Authors |
Itay Mayrose, Adi Stern, Ela O Burdelova, Yosef Sabo, Nihay Laham-Karam, Rachel Zamostiano, Eran Bacharach, Tal Pupko |
Abstract |
Synonymous or silent mutations are usually thought to evolve neutrally. However, accumulating recent evidence has demonstrated that silent mutations may destabilize RNA structures or disrupt cis regulatory motifs superimposed on coding sequences. Such observations suggest the existence of stretches of codon sites that are evolutionary conserved at both DNA-RNA and protein levels. Such stretches may point to functionally important regions within protein coding sequences not necessarily reflecting functional constraints on the amino-acid sequence. The HIV-1 genome is highly compact, and often harbors overlapping functional elements at the protein, RNA, and DNA levels. This superimposition of functions leads to complex selective forces acting on all levels of the genome and proteome. Considering the constraints on HIV-1 to maintain such a highly compact genome, we hypothesized that stretches of synonymous conservation would be common within its genome. |
X Demographics
Geographical breakdown
Country | Count | As % |
---|---|---|
United States | 3 | 100% |
Demographic breakdown
Type | Count | As % |
---|---|---|
Members of the public | 2 | 67% |
Scientists | 1 | 33% |
Mendeley readers
Geographical breakdown
Country | Count | As % |
---|---|---|
United States | 2 | 4% |
Netherlands | 1 | 2% |
France | 1 | 2% |
Unknown | 46 | 92% |
Demographic breakdown
Readers by professional status | Count | As % |
---|---|---|
Student > Ph. D. Student | 10 | 20% |
Researcher | 10 | 20% |
Student > Bachelor | 9 | 18% |
Professor > Associate Professor | 3 | 6% |
Student > Master | 3 | 6% |
Other | 7 | 14% |
Unknown | 8 | 16% |
Readers by discipline | Count | As % |
---|---|---|
Agricultural and Biological Sciences | 19 | 38% |
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology | 13 | 26% |
Immunology and Microbiology | 5 | 10% |
Computer Science | 2 | 4% |
Medicine and Dentistry | 2 | 4% |
Other | 2 | 4% |
Unknown | 7 | 14% |