page_title: Conserved sequence
section_title: Multiple sequence alignment
hierarchical_section_title: Conserved sequence / Identification / Multiple sequence alignment
caption_attribution_description: English: This is a sequence logo of the LexA-binding motif of Gram-positive bacteria. The logo was created from a list of experimentally-reported LexA-binding sites using the Weblogo server (http://weblogo.berkeley.edu/). At each position, the height of the stack represents the information content (see Information theory) of the position, while the height of each letter is proportional to its frequency at that position in the collection of sites
context_page_description: In evolutionary biology, conserved sequences are identical or similar sequences in nucleic acids or proteins across species, or within a genome, or between donor and receptor taxa. Conservation indicates that a sequence has been maintained by natural selection.
  A highly conserved sequence is one that has remained relatively unchanged far back up the phylogenetic tree, and hence far back in geological time. Examples of highly conserved sequences include the RNA components of ribosomes present in all domains of life, the homeobox sequences widespread amongst Eukaryotes, and the tmRNA in Bacteria. The study of sequence conservation overlaps with the fields of genomics, proteomics, evolutionary biology, phylogenetics, bioinformatics and mathematics.
context_section_description: Multiple sequence alignments can be used to visualise conserved sequences. The CLUSTAL format includes a plain-text key to annotate conserved columns of the alignment, denoting conserved sequence (*), conservative mutations (:), semi-conservative mutations (.), and non-conservative mutations ( ) Sequence logos can also show conserved sequence by representing the proportions of characters at each point in the alignment by height.
caption: A sequence logo for the LexA-binding motif of gram-positive bacteria. As the adenosine at position 5 is highly conserved, it appears larger than other characters.[18]
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