Genome factor and gene pleiotropy hypotheses in protein evolution

The debate of genomic correlations between sequence conservation, protein connectivity, gene essentiality and gene expression, has generated a number of new hypotheses that are challenging the classical framework of molecular evolution. For instance, the translational selection hypothesis claims that the determination of the rate of protein evolution is the protein stability to avoid the misfolding toxicity. In this short article, we propose that gene pleiotropy, the capacity for affecting multiple phenotypes, may play a vital role in molecular evolution. We discuss several approaches to testing this hypothesis. REVIEWERS: This article was reviewed by Dr Eugene Koonin, Dr Arcady Mushegian and Dr Claus Wilke.