Local Packing Density Is the Main Structural Determinant of the Rate of Protein Sequence Evolution at Site Level

Figure 1

Comparison of sequence variability profiles by their average Pearson’s correlation coefficients with different structural profiles. The sequence variability scores (listed in the figure legend) are ConSurf rate of evolution (CS), Evolutionary Trace score (ET), Karlin & Brocchieri Sum-of-Pairs score (KBSP), Valdar & Thornton Sum-of-Pairs score (VTSP), and Entropy (EN). The structural properties (the apices of the hexagon) are Weighted Contact Number (WCN), Contact Number (CN), Relative Solvent Accessibility (RSA), and Absolute Solvent Accessibility (ASA). The asterisk mark on CN means that the cut-off radius was chosen to maximize each CN-sequence average correlation. The cut-off radii for CS, ET, KBSP, VTSP, and EN are 19 Å, 19 Å, 18 Å, 18 Å, and 20 Å, respectively. Superscript letters distinguish RSA profiles obtained using different methods.