MolEvolvR: A web-app for characterizing proteins using molecular evolution and phylogeny

Abstract

Studying proteins through the lens of evolution can reveal conserved features, lineage-specific variants, and their potential functions. MolEvolvR (https://jravilab.org/molevolvr) is a novel web-app enabling researchers to visualize the molecular evolution of their proteins of interest in a phylogenetic context across the tree of life, spanning all superkingdoms. The web-app accepts multiple input formats – protein/domain sequences, homologous proteins, or domain scans – and, using a general-purpose computational workflow, returns detailed homolog data and dynamic graphical summaries (e.g., phylogenetic trees, multiple sequence alignments, domain architectures, domain proximity networks, phyletic spreads, co-occurrence patterns across lineages). In addition to whole protein searches, MolEvolvR can perform domain-wise analyses. Thus, MolEvolvR is a powerful, easy-to-use web interface for computational protein characterization.