Allele Propagation Prediction

Maybe you were looking for something like this:

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Evolutionary predictions of binding surfaces and interactions.

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Lichtarge O, Sowa ME.

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Department of Molecular and Human Genetics, 1 Baylor Plaza, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas 77030, USA. lichtarge@bcm.tmc.edu

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Rapid progress in structural biology and whole-genome sequencing technology means that, for many protein families, structural and evolutionary information are readily available. Recent developments demonstrate how this information can be integrated to identify canonical determinants of protein structure and function. Among these determinants, those residues that are on protein surfaces are especially likely to form binding sites and are the logical choice for further mutational analysis and drug targeting.

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Publication Types:
Review
Review, Tutorial

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PMID: 11839485 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

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Here they seem to be predicting what proteins (and therefore, what alleles) are most likely to lend themselves to useful mutations. Or so I read it. (Not a biologist.)I had read somewhere that they knew enough about the metabolism of E. coli to make accurate predictions about what environments E. coli could mutate to survive in.

I'm not sure this is true in the sense that you seem to imply. Most people draw a distiction between science that attempts to explain ongoing phenomenon and science that explains phenomenon that occured in the past. Of course all models have a bit of both, but what kind of predictions would you expect from paleontology? "We predict we'll find more fossils?"Evolution does make some predictions. It predicts that mutations will continue, and that the majority will decrease an organism's chance of survival, but every so often one will do the opposite, and that mutation will tend to replace other copies of the allele in the gene pool.What else do you expect? You're asking finite minds to make predictions about how nature, which operates in a radically different method than intelligent action, is going to solve a particular problem. Does that seem fruitful or even possible to you?