Figure 1

A graphical representation of the relationship between protein structure and schemas. (a) The β-lactamase protein is shown divided into different colored substructures (schemas), which are derived from the schema profile of the protein. (b) An example of a schema profile for a (simpler) hypothetical protein. Peaks correlate with positions in the protein where recombination will be maximally disruptive; valleys correlate with positions that are predicted to minimally disrupt the structure and function of the protein. (c) Intron structure may correlate with schema structure. To the extent it is now possible to calculate schema profiles, it can be hypothesized that introns (white) may generally fall at minima while exons (black) may generally contain larger disruption values.