What contribute to the variation of protein sequence across different species (e.g. phenotype, environment, evolutionary pressure) and how do those factors contribute to the variation?
I have tried to search using google + google scholar but they generally show papers discussing why and how the protein conserved across species rather than why/how the protein diverged across species. Please help me on this and references/sources are very important and highly appreciated. Thank you!
An example to clarify my question. The gene CD81 is not identical among human, chimp, rat, chicken based on this identity matrix from ClustalW2. Why is CD81 not identical in all species? What factors cause the different in CD81s? How do those factors cause that (e.g. evolutionary pressure)?
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# Percent Identity Matrix - created by Clustal2.1
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1: sp|P60033|CD81_HUMAN 100.00 100.00 93.22 82.55
2: sp|P60034|CD81_PANTR 100.00 100.00 93.22 82.55
3: sp|Q62745|CD81_RAT 93.22 93.22 100.00 82.55
4: tr|F1NW06|F1NW06_CHICK 82.55 82.55 82.55 100.00
Is this homework? It might be good to read an introduction on genetic variation in wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evolution#Variation
Hi Michael. Yes, this is a question from my homework. I checked the website you provided but I still could not find an answer for the question.
Hm, the page gives an overview of the most important factors of genetic variation. I think most central to understand your question are the terms mutation, vs. conservation, and maybe genetic drift.