Evidence map›Paper›PMID 26274323›Full record

ArticlePLoS computational biology2015

Systematic Mapping of Protein Mutational Space by Prolonged Drift Reveals the Deleterious Effects of Seemingly Neutral Mutations.

Liat Rockah-Shmuel, Ágnes Tóth-Petróczy, Dan S Tawfik

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in PLoS computational biology, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 47 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
47citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

47 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Article
  2. Selective control of ligand binding through a distal mutation that alters the protein native ensemble.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2026
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  14. Review
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  17. Review
  18. Phenotypic mutations contribute to protein diversity and shape protein evolution.Protein science : a publication of the Protein Society · 2022
    Review
  19. Mechanisms of protein evolution.Protein science : a publication of the Protein Society · 2022
    Review
  20. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

3 authors.

Liat Rockah-ShmuelDepartment of Biological Chemistry, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel.
Ágnes Tóth-PetróczyDepartment of Biological Chemistry, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel.
Dan S TawfikDepartment of Biological Chemistry, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Systematic mappings of the effects of protein mutations are becoming increasingly popular. Unexpectedly, these experiments often find that proteins are tolerant to most amino acid substitutions, including substitutions in positions that are highly conserved in nature. To obtain a more realistic distribution of the effects of protein mutations, we applied a laboratory drift comprising 17 rounds of random mutagenesis and selection of M.HaeIII, a DNA methyltransferase. During this drift, multiple mutations gradually accumulated. Deep sequencing of the drifted gene ensembles allowed determination of the relative effects of all possible single nucleotide mutations. Despite being averaged across many different genetic backgrounds, about 67% of all nonsynonymous, missense mutations were evidently deleterious, and an additional 16% were likely to be deleterious. In the early generations, the frequency of most deleterious mutations remained high. However, by the 17th generation, their frequency was consistently reduced, and those remaining were accepted alongside compensatory mutations. The tolerance to mutations measured in this laboratory drift correlated with sequence exchanges seen in M.HaeIII's natural orthologs. The biophysical constraints dictating purging in nature and in this laboratory drift also seemed to overlap. Our experiment therefore provides an improved method for measuring the effects of protein mutations that more closely replicates the natural evolutionary forces, and thereby a more realistic view of the mutational space of proteins.

Indexed as

Evolution, MolecularGenetic DriftBacterial ProteinsComputational BiologyDNA Modification MethylasesHaemophilusModels, GeneticMutationProteinsBacterial ProteinsDNA Modification MethylasesProteins

Identifiers

PMID26274323
PMCPMC4537296

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.