title: Evidence for purifying selection acting on silent sites in BRCA1.
abstract: In mammals, it is usually assumed that selection cannot be strong enough to act on nucleotide mutations that do not cause a change at the protein level (i.e. 'silent' or 'synonymous' mutations). Here we report the results of a molecular evolutionary analysis of BRCA1. We find a repeatable pronounced peak in the ratio of nonsynonymous to synonymous substitutions between codons 200-300. Unusually, this peak is caused by a plummet in the silent-site rate of evolution. The most parsimonious interpretation of these data is that purifying selection is acting on silent sites.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology and Biochemistry, University of Bath, Claverton Down, BA27AY, Bath, UK. l.d.hurst@bath.ac.uk
authors.forename: L D
authors.initials: LD
authors.lastname: Hurst
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Pál
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D020868:Gene Silencing; D019398:Genes, BRCA1; D006801:Humans; D012641:Selection, Genetic