DIVERGE: phylogeny-based analysis for functional–structural divergence of a protein family

Abstract

Summary: DetectIng Variability in Evolutionary Rates among GEnes (DIVERGE) is a software system to study functional divergence of a protein family by detecting site-specific change in evolutionary rate using a multiple alignment of amino acid sequences for a given phylogenetic tree. The program first conducts a statistical test for site-specific rate shifts along the tree, and predicting candidate amino acid residues responsible for functional divergence based on posterior analysis. These results can then be mapped on the 3D protein structure if available. Availability: DIVERGE is available free of charge from http://xgu1.zool.iastate.edu/. Distribution packages for both Linux and Microsoft Windows operating systems are available, including manual and example files. Contact: xgu@iastate.edu; kent@iastate.edu