Biology directDecember 1, 2017

Identification of positive selection in genes is greatly improved by using experimentally informed site-specific models

Jesse D Bloom
doi:10.1186/s13062-016-0172-z

Abstract

Sites of positive selection are identified by comparing observed evolutionary patterns to those expected under a null model for evolution in the absence of such selection. For protein-coding genes, the most common null model is that nonsynonymous and synonymous mutations fix at equal rates; this unrealistic model has limited power to detect many interesting forms of selection.