Molecular evolutionary studies

This appendix contains a listing of addresses and telephone numbers of importance in molecular evolutionary studies. 

One of the goals of molecular evolutionary studies is to understand the mechanisms and pathways used by the evolutionary process to produce proteins of altered or new function. These types of issues are best addressed through the use of the comparative method,1 wherein explicit evolutionary models are used to interpret the biochemical data. 

Note that even evolutionary studies have moved to the molecular level over the last generation (mainly because this is the level at which genetics is now practiced). Using these studies to understand phenotypic evolution will require a molecular or, at least, a physical account of development. 

Tian, M., and Lewis, R. V. (2005). Molecular characterization and evolutionary study of spider tubuliform (eggcase) silk protein. Biochemistry 44, 8006-8012. 

With the advent of protein sequencing, also in the 1950s, attempts were made to study protein variation directly on the primary structure. However, the method was very expensive and time-consuming and could not be applied to population genetics. It remained confined to evolutionary study of differences between species (applied to molecular phylogenetics) and to the demonstration of sequence mutation in important heritable diseases. 

Organisms from which molecular data are obtained should be properly identified and documented. This is important for systematic and evolutionary studies because knowledge of the species involved may be crucial to interpretation, because published sequence information may be utilized in ways other than for which it was initially obtained, and because verifiability is one of the tenets of empirical science. A sequence reported as coming from Genus sp. is, from a systematic standpoint, so poorly documented that the future utility of the information is seriously impaired. Given the effort required to obtain sequence information, it behooves the molecular researcher to devote some care to proper identification and documentation. 

Eigen eventually found that it was replication that governed the optimization for molecules. He came out with this theory in Naturwissenschaften, and showed that Darwin was valid even for molecules if they were reproducing molecules. In this case it was possible to describe the process with a mathematical theory. He showed the necessity of a certain error threshold if the mutation rate is too high, information is lost, and if the mutation rate is too low, the progress rate is insufficient, and so on. This is the point where Eigen s studies of fast reactions and the molecular evolutionary theory are connected. 

Benveniste RE (1985) The contribution of retroviruses to the study of mammalian evolution. In MacIntyre RJ (ed) Molecular evolutionary genetics. Plenum, New York, pp 359-417... 

GHz spectral line surveys of tliree regions of the W3 giant molecular cloud complex [21]. From such studies, which reveal dramatic differences in the THz spectmm of various objects, molecular astrophysicists hope to classify the evolutionary state of the cloud, just as optical spectra are used to classify stars. 

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