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

Figure 2

Comparison of structural profiles by their average Pearson’s correlation coefficients with different sequence variability profiles. The sequence variability measures (the axes of the pentagon) 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 (listed in the figure legend) 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.