"Robert J. Bradbury" wrote:
>
> [P]olymorphisms... don't tell you very much about the
> protein differences that lead to phenotype differences in humans...
> [S]ingle nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) where a single
> base is changed... probably have no effect... Even if you
> change the amino-acid at that point in the protein, you would have
> to change it to one with a radically different characteristics
> (+ charged to - charged, hydrophobic to hydrophilic, etc.)
> to have a mutation that seriously effects the protein produced.
So the final 3D configuration of a protein, and its resulting
function, are quite robust against noise in the 1D sequence?
Very interesting, if true. It certainly makes things easier
for evolutionary theorists if the genomic recipe can be a little
sloppy, and still produce results that more-or-less work.
Jim F.
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