Ratios of radical to conservative amino acid replacement are affected by mutational and compositional factors and may not be indicative of positive Darwinian selection.

Abstract excerpt

The ratio of radical to conservative amino acid replacements is frequently used to infer positive Darwinian selection. This method is based on the assumption that radical replacements are more likely than conservative replacements to improve the function of a protein. Therefore, if positive selection plays a major role in the evolution of a protein, one would expect the radical-conservative ratio to exceed the...

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