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Computational Modeling of Biological Systems pp 327–345Cite as

Modeling Structural and Genomic Constraints in the Evolution of Proteins

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Abstract

Macromolecules influence the phenotype of the organism where they are expressed through their function, and in particular through their interactions. Nevertheless, it is very difficult to computationally predict protein function and interactions. Moreover, only a few residues take part in them. For these reasons, models of molecular evolution usually represent folded macromolecules such as RNA or proteins and identify the function of the molecule with the folded structure, whose stability determines the modeled fitness.

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Acknowledgments

We gratefully acknowledge our past and present collaborators in this field: David Abia, LLoyd Demetrius, Miriam Fritsche, Raul Méndez, Gonzalo S. Nido, Jonas Minning, Alberto Pascual-García, H. Eduardo Roman, Christoph Schmitt, Stefanie Sammet, Florian Teichert, and Michele Vendruscolo. Our research has been funded by several agencies over the years, and we wish to specifically mention financial support by the Spanish Science and Innovation Ministry (“Ramón y Cajal” and “Acciones Integradas España-Alemania” programs), the Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (“Acciones Integradas España-Alemania” program) and the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (Normalverfahren and Heisenberg program).

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  1. Centro de Biología Molecular “Severo Ochoa”, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas and Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Madrid, Spain

    Ugo Bastolla

  2. Institut für Theoretische Physik, Universität zu Köln, Köln, Germany

    Markus Porto

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  1. Ugo Bastolla
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Correspondence to Ugo Bastolla .

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    Nikolay V Dokholyan

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Bastolla, U., Porto, M. (2012). Modeling Structural and Genomic Constraints in the Evolution of Proteins. In: Dokholyan, N. (eds) Computational Modeling of Biological Systems. Biological and Medical Physics, Biomedical Engineering. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-2146-7_14

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