Dataset Information

CodonTest: modeling amino acid substitution preferences in coding sequences.

ABSTRACT: Codon models of evolution have facilitated the interpretation of selective forces operating on genomes. These models, however, assume a single rate of non-synonymous substitution irrespective of the nature of amino acids being exchanged. Recent developments have shown that models which allow for amino acid pairs to have independent rates of substitution offer improved fit over single rate models. However, these approaches have been limited by the necessity for large alignments in their estimation. An alternative approach is to assume that substitution rates between amino acid pairs can be subdivided into rate classes, dependent on the information content of the alignment. However, given the combinatorially large number of such models, an efficient model search strategy is needed. Here we develop a Genetic Algorithm (GA) method for the estimation of such models. A GA is used to assign amino acid substitution pairs to a series of rate classes, where is estimated from the alignment. Other parameters of the phylogenetic Markov model, including substitution rates, character frequencies and branch lengths are estimated using standard maximum likelihood optimization procedures. We apply the GA to empirical alignments and show improved model fit over existing models of codon evolution. Our results suggest that current models are poor approximations of protein evolution and thus gene and organism specific multi-rate models that incorporate amino acid substitution biases are preferred. We further anticipate that the clustering of amino acid substitution rates into classes will be biologically informative, such that genes with similar functions exhibit similar clustering, and hence this clustering will be useful for the evolutionary fingerprinting of genes.

SUBMITTER: Delport W

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2924240 | biostudies-literature | 2010 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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CodonTest: modeling amino acid substitution preferences in coding sequences.

Delport Wayne W Scheffler Konrad K Botha Gordon G Gravenor Mike B MB Muse Spencer V SV Kosakovsky Pond Sergei L SL

PLoS computational biology 20100819 8

Codon models of evolution have facilitated the interpretation of selective forces operating on genomes. These models, however, assume a single rate of non-synonymous substitution irrespective of the nature of amino acids being exchanged. Recent developments have shown that models which allow for amino acid pairs to have independent rates of substitution offer improved fit over single rate models. However, these approaches have been limited by the necessity for large alignments in their estimatio ...[more]

PMID: 20808876

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Project description:Antibodies are glycoproteins produced by the immune system as a dynamically adaptive line of defense against invading pathogens. Very elegant and specific mutational mechanisms allow B lymphocytes to produce a large and diversified repertoire of antibodies, which is modified and enhanced throughout all adulthood. One of these mechanisms is somatic hypermutation, which stochastically mutates nucleotides in the antibody genes, forming new sequences with different properties and, eventually, higher affinity and selectivity to the pathogenic target. As somatic hypermutation involves fast mutation of antibody sequences, this process can be described using a Markov substitution model of molecular evolution. Here, using large sets of antibody sequences from mice and humans, we infer an empirical amino acid substitution model AB, which is specific to antibody sequences. Compared with existing general amino acid models, we show that the AB model provides significantly better description for the somatic evolution of mice and human antibody sequences, as demonstrated on large next generation sequencing (NGS) antibody data. General amino acid models are reflective of conservation at the protein level due to functional constraints, with most frequent amino acids exchanges taking place between residues with the same or similar physicochemical properties. In contrast, within the variable part of antibody sequences we observed an elevated frequency of exchanges between amino acids with distinct physicochemical properties. This is indicative of a sui generis mutational mechanism, specific to antibody somatic hypermutation. We illustrate this property of antibody sequences by a comparative analysis of the network modularity implied by the AB model and general amino acid substitution models. We recommend using the new model for computational studies of antibody sequence maturation, including inference of alignments and phylogenetic trees describing antibody somatic hypermutation in large NGS data sets. The AB model is implemented in the open-source software CodonPhyML (http://sourceforge.net/projects/codonphyml) and can be downloaded and supplied by the user to ProGraphMSA (http://sourceforge.net/projects/prographmsa) or other alignment and phylogeny reconstruction programs that allow for user-defined substitution models.

Project description:BACKGROUND: Rates of molecular evolution in different lineages can vary widely, and some of this variation might be predictable from aspects of species' biology. Investigating such predictable rate variation can help us to understand the causes of molecular evolution, and could also help to improve molecular dating methods. Here we present a comprehensive study of the life history correlates of substitution rate variation across the mammals, comparing results for mitochondrial and nuclear loci, and for synonymous and non-synonymous sites. We use phylogenetic comparative methods, refined to take into account the special nature of substitution rate data. Particular attention is paid to the widespread correlations between the components of mammalian life history, which can complicate the interpretation of results. RESULTS: We find that mitochondrial synonymous substitution rates, estimated from the 9 longest mitochondrial genes, show strong negative correlations with body mass and with maximum recorded lifespan. But lifespan is the sole variable to remain after multiple regression and model simplification. Nuclear synonymous substitution rates, estimated from 6 genes, show strong negative correlations with body mass and generation time, and a strong positive correlation with fecundity. In contrast to the mitochondrial results, the same trends are evident in rates of nonsynonymous substitution. CONCLUSION: A substantial proportion of variation in mammalian substitution rates can be explained by aspects of their life history, implying that molecular and life history evolution are closely interlinked in this group. The strength and consistency of the nuclear body mass effect suggests that molecular dating studies may have been systematically misled, but also that methods could be improved by incorporating the finding as a priori information. Mitochondrial synonymous rates also show the body mass effect, but for apparently quite different reasons, and the strength of the relationship with maximum lifespan provides support for the hypothesis that mtDNA damage is causally linked to aging.

Dataset Information

CodonTest: modeling amino acid substitution preferences in coding sequences.

Publications

CodonTest: modeling amino acid substitution preferences in coding sequences.

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