Why are some proteins structures so common?

Why are some proteins structures so common?

Many biological proteins are observed to fold into one of a limited number of structural motifs. By considering the requirements imposed on proteins by their need to fold rapidly, and the ease with which such requirements can be fulfilled as a function of the native structure, we can explain why certain structures are repeatedly observed among proteins with negligible sequence similarity. This ...

Why are sex and recombination so common?

The abundance of sex and recombination is still one of the most puzzling questions in the theory of evolution: Most models find that recombination can evolve, but only under a limited range of parameters. Here we review the major models and supporting evidence, concentrating on recent approaches where more realistic assumptions help explain the evolution of sex and recombination under a wider p...

Why are some animals so smart?

Why are clicks so exclusive ?

Clicks occur abundantly in the languages of southern Africa, but are not found anywhere else. This is unexpected since the clicks seem to be both auditorily salient and easy to produce. This paper suggests that the reason for the areal skewness of clicks lies in the African phonetictypological environment rather than in production or perception constraints. In particular, clicks are limited to ...

Why are so many trees hollow?

In many living trees, much of the interior of the trunk can be rotten or even hollowed out. Previously, this has been suggested to be adaptive, with microbial or animal consumption of interior wood producing a rain of nutrients to the soil beneath the tree that allows recycling of those nutrients into new growth via the trees roots. Here I propose an alternative (non-exclusive) explanation: suc...