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Full-Text Articles in Physical Sciences and Mathematics

Mutation Selection On The Metabolic Pathway And The Effects On Protein Co-Evolution And The Rate Limiting Steps On The Tree Of Life, Katherine S. Porter Jul 2016

Mutation Selection On The Metabolic Pathway And The Effects On Protein Co-Evolution And The Rate Limiting Steps On The Tree Of Life, Katherine S. Porter

Mathematics Summer Fellows

Metabolic pathways are made of a series of reactions by enzymes at different speeds. These pathways include the rate limiting step, which is the slowest step that determines the rate of the overall reaction. To date, one study has examined the pathway of glycolysis and found no evidence of evolutionary stability of its rate limiting step. In addition, phylogenetic evidence has shown evolution in the pathway over time including gene duplication and positive selection within the pathway. This evidence suggests that there is coevolutionary selection on glycolysis. The evidence from this previous study is simulation-based. The Michaelis-Menten kinetics that describe …


Ciliate Codon Translator Program Manual, Quentin D. Altemose Jul 2016

Ciliate Codon Translator Program Manual, Quentin D. Altemose

Mathematics Summer Fellows

Understanding the evolutionary history of organisms allows us to better comprehend selective pressures and their effects on larger populations. In our study, we focused on analyzing the DNA of ciliate groups, which are single celled protozoans characterized by the presence of cilia on their outer membrane. We utilized the DNA of the organisms to analyze the changes in population genotype over time. We tested existing evolutionary models (designed to represent natural genetic variation over time in populations) against our data to identify the model with the best fit and likelihood. From the DNA and the evolutionary model with the highest …