Answer to Question #149562 in Bioinformatics for Muhammad Abuzar

Question

It is believed that protein sequence evolves and changes faster than protein structure. What could be an evolutionary explanation for this?

Answer 1

protein structures change during evolution in response to mutations. Besides, protein cores evolve linearly with evolutionary distance. The protein structure is more conserved than sequence. In fact, protein structure cores evolve three to ten times slower than sequence. Therefore, protein sequence evolves and changes faster than protein structure.