Fig. 1From: Aligning functional network constraint to evolutionary outcomesExamples for different levels of genetic constraint. Linkage is a transient constraint, which is broken up through recombination or other chromosome rearrangements. If a gene arises through duplication, phylogenetic constraint means that the function of its gene product may be non-independent with relation to the ancestral gene product. Codon constraint describes the likelihood of the different codon positions to produce beneficial mutations. Protein functional site constraint describes constraint located in genomic regions that code for functional sites of proteins versus other regions of the proteins. This is related to the idea that gene products form a functional genomic network. Within this network, interactions of these gene products also pose an element of constraint on evolution, but this is not well researchedBack to article page