Protein biophysics meets molecular evolution

What is it about?

We summarize recent advances at the interface between Protein Biophysics and Molecular Evolution. First, the effects that mutations have on the biophysical properties of proteins are discussed. Mutations can change the stability, dynamics, and binding of proteins. Second, we highlight our own field of research which is the use of evolutionary computer models that make use of the biophysical properties associated with an explicit molecular chain. Future trends are discussed.

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Why is it important?

The field of molecular evolution has come to a point where DNA and protein sequence information is available in abundance and sophisticated statistical methods have been developed to infer evolutionary relationships. The next step that will advance molecular evolution is the incorporation of structural knowledge of the molecules that are changed by mutations. Since this information is difficult to obtain at a large scale, simplified computer models will help guide future research.