Article
Initial mutations direct alternative pathways of protein evolution.
PLoS genetics - 1 Mar 2011
Salverda Merijn L M, Dellus Eynat, Gorter Florien A, Debets Alfons J M, van der Oost John, Hoekstra Rolf F, Tawfik Dan S, de Visser J Arjan G M
Abstract excerpt
Whether evolution is erratic due to random historical details, or is repeatedly directed along similar paths by certain constraints, remains unclear. Epistasis (i.e. non-additive interaction between mutations that affect fitness) is a mechanism that can contribute to both scenarios. Epistasis can constrain the type and order of selected mutations, but it can also make adaptive trajectories contingent upon the...
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