Understand Evolution Better Applying the Computer
Thomas Dandekar, Meik Kunz · Bioinformatics · 2023
The evolution of populations creates new species; the individual living being or protein is, after all, determined within narrow limits by the specific genomeGenomes. New populations with ever new typical characteristics (through mutationMutations and, in the case of sexual reproduction, through recombinationRecombination) are always created, which allow an almost optimal adaptation to the prevailing environment, less environmentally related characteristics are less often passed on in the population (selectionSelection). However, many variants are also neutral or new structures only appear abruptly when enough mutationsMutations are present (neutral pathwaysPathways in RNA structures; “punctuated equilibrium”Punctuated equilibrium according to Gould). PhylogenyPhylogeny helps to infer the evolution of different species on the basis of shared or non-shared characteristics via calculated predecessors. There are faster (neighbor joining) and more accurate methods (parsimonyParsimony, most accurate maximum likelihoodMaximum-likelihood). Accompanying sequence and secondary structureSecondary structure analyses reveal conserved and variable regions as well as the evolution of functional domainsDomains. Most accurate phylogenetic trees require much practice and systematic comparison of all available information (e.g. alternative phylogenetic trees; marker proteins).