title: Effective temperature of mutations.
abstract: Biological macromolecules experience two seemingly very different types of noise acting on different time scales: (i) point mutations corresponding to changes in molecular sequence and (ii) thermal fluctuations. Examining the secondary structures of a large number of microRNA precursor sequences and model lattice proteins, we show that the effects of single point mutations are statistically indistinguishable from those of an increase in temperature by a few tens of kelvins. The existence of such an effective mutational temperature establishes a quantitative connection between robustness to genetic (mutational) and environmental (thermal) perturbations.
authors.affiliation: ELTE-MTA "Lendulet" Biophysics Research Group, Department of Biological Physics, Eötvös University, Pázmány Peter Setany 1A, H-1117 Budapest, Hungary.
authors.forename: Imre
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Derényi
authors.affiliation: ELTE-MTA "Lendulet" Biophysics Research Group, Department of Biological Physics, Eötvös University, Pázmány Peter Setany 1A, H-1117 Budapest, Hungary.
authors.forename: Gergely J
authors.initials: GJ
authors.lastname: Szöllősi
mesh_terms: D035683:MicroRNAs / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics*; D008957:Models, Genetic; D009690:Nucleic Acid Conformation; D017354:Point Mutation; D013696:Temperature
chemical_list: D035683:MicroRNAs