Comparisons of amino acid sequences can shed light on the evolutionary divergence of related species. If you were comparing two living species, would you expect all proteins to show the same degree of divergence? Why or why not? Justify your answer.

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Syllable

Biology

4 July, 16:17

Comparisons of amino acid sequences can shed light on the evolutionary divergence of related species. If you were comparing two living species, would you expect all proteins to show the same degree of divergence? Why or why not? Justify your answer.

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Braxton Ballard · Answer 1

If the comparison is made between two of the living species, then all the proteins would not demonstrate a similar degree of divergence. Though the two species got diverged during the progression of evolution, they have originated from a common ancestor.

Some of the proteins taking part in very essential activities of the cell, like protein synthesis and replication would have got conserved in both the species. The modifications resulting due to mutations in the sequences of DNA, which further lead to modifications in very essential proteins may result in the loss of function of such kind of proteins. This would be harmful to the organism.

Only modifications in the proteins that are in reality benefit the organism would be encouraged at the time of divergence. Thus, the degree of divergence of all the proteins in two species will not be same.