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. 2007 Oct 31;2(10):e1098. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0001098

Figure 4. Positive selection or relaxed selective constraint of the C-terminal domain of PCSK9.

Figure 4

d N is plotted versus d S for all pairwise combinations of primate sequences. The pairwise ratios of d N/d S were calculated using the Nei-Gojobori method implemented in the package ‘PAML’ [72]. Pairwise combinations of Hominoids (HOM), Old World monkeys (OWM), and New World monkeys (NWM) are plotted; for example, ‘Human’ represents the points that are making comparisons between human and another primate. We plotted the entire sequence, non C-terminal domain, and C-terminal domain separately. The higher pairwise d N/d S ratio in the C-terminal domain suggests that this domain is evolving in a non-neutral model, which maybe due to positive selection or relaxed selective constraint in some lineages. The entire sequence and non C-terminal domain of PCSK9 showed a net signature of purifying selection.