Adaptive protein coevolution preserves telomere integrity.

ABSTRACT: Many essential conserved functions depend, paradoxically, on proteins that evolve rapidly under positive selection. How such adaptively evolving proteins promote biological innovation while preserving conserved, essential functions remains unclear. Here, we experimentally test the hypothesis that adaptive protein-protein coevolution within an essential multi-protein complex mitigates the deleterious incidental byproducts of innovation under pressure from selfish genetic elements. We swapped a single, adaptively evolving subunit of a telomere protection complex from Drosophila yakuba into its close relative, D. melanogaster. The heterologous subunit uncovered a catastrophic interspecies incompatibility that caused lethal telomere fusions. Restoring six adaptively evolving site

SUBMITTER: Lin SY 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11601235 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature