Adaptive protein evolution grants organismal fitness by improving catalysis and flexibility.

ABSTRACT: Protein evolution is crucial for organismal adaptation and fitness. This process takes place by shaping a given 3-dimensional fold for its particular biochemical function within the metabolic requirements and constraints of the environment. The complex interplay between sequence, structure, functionality, and stability that gives rise to a particular phenotype has limited the identification of traits acquired through evolution. This is further complicated by the fact that mutations are pleiotropic, and interactions between mutations are not always understood. Antibiotic resistance mediated by beta-lactamases represents an evolutionary paradigm in which organismal fitness depends on the catalytic efficiency of a single enzyme. Based on this, we have dissected the structural and mechanistic

SUBMITTER: Tomatis PE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2634896 | biostudies-literature | 2008 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature