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1 November 2008 Enzyme Isoforms May Increase Phenotypic Robustness
Maurizio Tomaiuolo, Richard Bertram, David Houle
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Abstract

Enzyme isoforms are found in many cellular reactions, and can differ in the kind of reaction they catalyze, in their substrate affinity, or in their reaction rates. The evolutionary significance of enzyme isoforms is only partially understood. We used mathematical modeling to investigate the hypothesis that isoforms may be favored by selection because they can increase the phenotypic robustness of the system. We modify a model for circadian clock gene expression in Drosophila to incorporate the presence of isoforms in the phosphorylation pathway of the period gene. We consider the case in which different isoforms catalyze the same reaction but have different affinities for the substrate. Stability is increased if there is dynamic control of the expression of isoforms relative to each other. Thus, we show that controlling isoform proportion can be a powerful mechanism for reducing the effects of variations in the values of system parameters, increasing system robustness.

Maurizio Tomaiuolo, Richard Bertram, and David Houle "Enzyme Isoforms May Increase Phenotypic Robustness," Evolution 62(11), 2884-2893, (1 November 2008). https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1558-5646.2008.00483.x
Received: 21 January 2008; Accepted: 2 July 2008; Published: 1 November 2008
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KEYWORDS
canalization
circadian rhythm
Drosophila
gene duplications
isozymes
robustness
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