Wednesday, February 22, 2017

Rates of evolution of reaction center proteins and other proteins of photosynthesis

I have been doing molecular clock analysis of several proteins and enzymes relevant to photosynthesis. This has allowed me measure the rate of evolution. Several of this I have presented in my recent paper available in bioRxiv, which I have just submitted for peer-review. I present here a few more of other unpublished projects.

The rates are given as amino acid changes per site per billion years

Photosystem II core protein - D1: 0.088
Photosystem II core protein - D2: 0.12
Anoxygenic Type II RC core protein - L: 0.63
Anoxygenic Type II RC core protein - M: 0.60

Photosystem I core protein - PsaA: 0.13
Photosystem I core protein - PsaB: 0.15
Anoxygenic Type I RC protein of heliobacteria - PshA: 0.27
Anoxygenic Type I RC protein of the Chlorobi - PscA: 0.24

Mg-chelatase: ChlD/BchD: 0.60 (average from all phototrophs)
Putative Co-chelatase homolog to ChlD: 0.73 (average from archaea strains)

These were calculated using Phylobayes 3.3f under a CAT model using the birth-death model and soft bounds on the calibrations points, assuming an age for photosynthesis around 3.5 billion years ago.

If you want more details, please look at the paper above or send me an email.